Skylanders Cloudbreak Adventure
by EyesontheskieS
Summary: This story is about a portal master-Gregory-and his adventures in the Cloudbreak Islands. This story is partially based off the game. Rated T just to be careful.
1. A wish for adventure

Skylanders: Cloudbreak Adventure

**Disclaimer: I do not own Skylanders. I am not affiliated with Skylanders.**

-Chapter One: A wish for adventure-

I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock after a full night of sleep. Yesterday had been my last day of summer vacation, and today I was starting eleventh grade. I got up and left my room, going downstairs to eat breakfast. When I arrived, I saw my mom and dad in the dining room.

My dad was dressed for work in his long-sleeved white shirt and his tan slacks. He had his brown business shoes on and had already combed his short hair this morning. He had finished his breakfast and was just sipping his coffee.

My mom was still yet to get dressed for work-she left for work a little later than dad. She was in her white pajamas, though her somewhat long hair looked taken care of this morning. She was still eating her breakfast right now.

When they heard me, they turned to face me. "Good Morning, Gregory. Did you sleep well?" My mom asked. "Sure did." I said. "Good." Mom said back. "So today's the big day, Gregory-you excited to head back to school?" My dad asked. "Well sure! It'll be good to see my friends and learn more!" I said back. Dad smiled and said: "Good, that's my boy. You've always got a positive attitude." I smiled and said: "Thanks." Then I went on: "Well, as long as you're having breakfast, I think I'll get mine ready and join on in." Before I went into the kitchen and made my breakfast and then joined my parents in the dining room.

When I was done, we all sat there and talked for a little while before my dad took his last sip of coffee and said: "Well, it looks like I'm going to have to leave soon, so I'd better get ready." He and mom then said goodbye before he turned to me and said: "Good luck, Gregory." And he left.

I looked at the clock on the wall and said: "Looks like I'd better start getting ready, too…" And my mom said: "Alright. Good luck today, Gregory-we're so proud of you. I know today will go just fine." I smiled and said: "Thanks mom. Have a good day, too." Before I put my dishes in the dishwasher and left.

Both of my parents would be leaving soon enough. Even in spite of their busy schedules, though, they had always been nice to me like this all of my life and I was thankful. You can't pick your parents, but I was happy with what I had.

I got everything ready for my day, but I had some time left over, so I decided to play a video game quickly before I had to go. I always loved the magic and the imagination of the video games I played-I had always admired them since I was a child. In such a simple world where I always just went to school and did homework and chores, it was always nice to escape from the realities of a student's working world and have some fun. But while playing video games was a good way to satisfy my need for fun, I couldn't help but wish for the chance to have an adventure like in my games… of course, that could never happen, though.

Soon I stopped and turned my game console off before I got my materials packed up in my backpack and got dressed: Today I wore a white V-neck shirt and my blue jeans, along with my navy blue jacket and black boots. I also made sure to comb my hair and brush my teeth before leaving-my hair was brown and went down to about half way down the bottom of my neck, so it wasn't hard to take care of.

Then I left for school-it was within walking distance of my house. I left the house and locked the front door and set off, until soon I arrived at my high school.

I was taking a few classes this year, and my morning ones were the ones I was most excited about. I had an English class and a news class. I liked the English class because it was always important to me to speak and write well, so I could be persuasive.

And I liked the news class because part of it was a current news analysis that always ended up sparking discussions between the class members. I had always found it fun to prepare an argument for the topic I had ready and use reason in discussions with other students. Sometimes I educated them and sometimes they educated me, but either way having the chance to think critically and reason my way through problems was very fun to me.

At lunch, I sat with my friends, like always. Like me, they also liked video games and working hard at their classes. We all had different strengths, which was part of what made our discussions fun. We were often labeled as "geeks" by the school's bullies, but it didn't bother us. If being friendly to other students and using my abilities to reason and think made me a geek, then I'll take that title any day!

From there, my afternoon classes went by in a real flash! When they were over, I walked back home. When I arrived, I unlocked the door and then locked it again. Both of my parents were working late tonight, so I would be on my own for a while. I headed up to my room and put my backpack away by my desk, but when I go to it I saw something strange:

There was an odd, circular device that was colored black on the sides and had arches and weird symbols all around them… and the top of the device was just a white circle. There was also an inscription on the device that said: 'portal of power'…

I had never seen anything like this. Had my parents left it here? Looking it over, I decided to examine it more closely; I picked it up and looked at it, but as I did, something I never expected happened: The device rose up from my hand into the air! "HUH?" I said in disbelief. The next thing I knew, there was a blinding flash of light…

And when I could see again, I was standing on top of clouds… in the middle of a blue sky! "WHOA!" I yelled. Yet strangely, I was not falling… but even so, I still wasn't out of the woods yet-I still didn't know where I was or how I had gotten here!

I immediately set out to look around, but as I did, I felt weight on my left arm… I looked at it and saw an odd machine on it: the machine covered my forearm and lower bicep and had a triangular edge on my elbow… where had this come from? It was just one mystery after another…

All the same, I looked around the cloudy area, but it just seemed like an endless expanse… Soon I stopped and(out of frustration) yelled: "ARGH! What is going on?" But someone answered… I heard a voice say: "I see you have arrived! Welcome!"

I immediately looked up and saw the silhouette of an old man's head appear in front of me... He had a long white beard and mustache, and wore a gray helmet on his head with a few pairs of horns on it.

"W-who are you?" I asked. "My name is Eon. I have come to introduce you to our world. Welcome to Skylands!" The head said. "Skylands…? But why am I here?" I asked. "Because you wanted adventure." Eon replied. I looked confused as he went on: "You wanted something more than everyday life, didn't you? You wanted an adventure, a journey that could enrich your life… I felt that burning desire and that is what made me aware of your existence. And that is what led me to summon you here; you wanted an adventure and this world is in need of heroes, so I wanted to propose a mutual partnership."

While this all sounded interesting, I had to wonder what was going on back on Earth and how my absence was affecting things… "Well hold on, Eon… as much as I appreciate your offer, I can't stay here… I couldn't just abandon my family and friends in my world!" I said. "Do not fear; you are still in your world right now even as we-" Eon began, but then I said: "But how is that possible?" "The truth is you are only a projection of yourself. The real 'you' is still on Earth, and you are retaining consciousness in both your vessel and the projected 'you' here. Each one is responsible for their tasks in their own world-and you won't miss out on anything by being here. You will gain memory of what happens in your world, just as the other 'you' will gain memory of what happens here." Eon said.

"Wow… that's amazing…" I said. But then I just realized something: Eon had said 'Earth'… which must mean he knows about it! "But now that you mention it, I can't help but notice you mentioned Earth. Do you know about it?" I asked. "Yes I do. The truth is I too came from your world. Humans are not native to Skylands and must be brought here." Eon replied.

"So how did I get here then?" I asked. "You found a portal of power in your world that transported you here. It is a magic device that can connect Earth to Skylands which is used to bring portal masters into Skylands, as it has done since ancient times." Eon replied.

"That's amazing… well, I must admit that this sounds fascinating, but even then, how am I supposed to help you?" I asked. "First of all, you would not be alone; if you agree to join me, you would be a portal master-someone who partners with the Skylanders- and the Skylanders are the great defenders of Skylands. They are the ones who work together with their portal masters to defend the residents of our world." Eon said.

"So what are the Skylanders?" I asked. "Anything that wants to defend Skylands can be a Skylander. You'd be surprised at how many kinds there are; some are dragons, some plants and some machines. The variety of them is amazing!" He replied.

Then he went on: "The other important thing that you would be using is that device around your arm… your 'portal glove'." Eon said. "Portal glove?" I echoed. "Yes. You see, it is an ancient, very special device that can hold your Skylanders inside as data. With it, you can call them out one-by-one instead of having to have them all out, or keep them inside if you're going somewhere they can't cross." Eon replied.

This all seemed so amazing… the chance to be a hero like in a video game and travel all over a new world without any consequence on Earth… it seemed like a dream come true! "So… are you interested in being a portal master?" Eon asked. I thought it over carefully; in the end, I decided this was an opportunity that would be a waste to pass up.

"Well sure! You can count on me, Eon!" I said. "That is wonderful, portal master. Once again, welcome to Skylands- I am glad to have you on our side." Eon said. Then he went on: "So what is your name?" "My name is Gregory." I answered. "Alright then, Gregory. Get ready-a world of adventure is waiting for you!" Eon said.

"So what do I do first?" I asked. "Fortunately, Skylands already has many other people like you here-they all have formed special bases where they train portal masters to do their work and give them assignments. Recently, we made a base in a special part of Skylands called the Cloudbreak Islands when a demand for support from the Skylanders came up. You will be sent to that base to begin your journey. Good luck Gregory-I'll see you later." Eon said.

Then the silhouette of Eon's head vanished and there was another flash of light before I found myself on top of a disc-like platform that was connected to a walkway that led to a giant white door inside of a white room. There were unusual creatures standing around and similar platforms that were also connected to the walkway were scattered all over the room and they all had orange circles in the middle, too…

I stepped off the platform and walked up to the nearest creature I saw-it(like all the others) was shorter than me, about the size of a seven or eight year old human and was wearing a sky blue shirt and shorts of the same color. It had brown fur all over with brown stripes and triangular ears-it looked like an evolved raccoon…

"Hi there!" I said. The raccoon-like creature turned to face me and he said: "Oh, welcome! You must be a prospective portal master!" "That's right! How'd you know so fast?" I asked. "This is the facility on the Beach-Beta base that deals with new portal masters and registers them. I'm part of this facility's staff; my name's Barkin. So what's your name, portal master?" He asked.

"It's Gregory!" I answered back. "Alright then Gregory, I'll take you to one of the commanders of this base where you can meet him and get updated. Come this way!" Barkin said. And I followed him out of the room and into a large hallway with many creatures and even giant windows and when I looked through them, I could see why the base was called the 'Beach-Beta' base;

This building was actually built on a massive beach! There were palm trees nearby the edge of the building and it was overlooking a sandy beach and an impressive view of an ocean…

It was hard not to stop and get distracted by it as I followed Barkin, but I kept going and eventually said: "Say Barkin?" Yes?" He said. "I met a man named Eon on my way here who explained a lot to me, but before I was sent here, he disappeared… will Eon be involved in this whole process?" I asked. "Well, no… in truth, Master Eon is a ghost… he was a revered portal master a while back, but he was destroyed in a blast by a powerful beast that served a dictator named Kaos. While Eon's body was destroyed, his spirit lived on and has been cooperating with the portal masters who have come to Skylands over the years to recruit more portal masters and he's doing everything he can to save Skylands…" Barkin replied. "Wow…" I said back.

Soon Barkin took me over to a desk with a clerk who looked like a cat and he said: "Please wait for a moment."

I spent the time looking over the scenery and soon enough, Barkin said: "Alright, we're ready to continue!" And I followed him to an elevator. We went in and Barkin fiddled around with some buttons on it before I could feel it going upward. Soon it stopped and the doors opened.

Barkin and I left and we walked across another hall with windows that was much higher than where we were previously(the beach looked so distant on the ground) before he stopped at a door with an intercom in front of it. Barkin pressed a button on it and said: "Commander David, sir? It's Barkin. I have a new portal master here." And I heard a man with a slightly raspy voice say: "Alright, send 'em on in." And Barkin pressed a couple of buttons lower on the intercom before he said: "Go on, then."

I walked in and saw a tall, fairly muscular man working at a desk, but his back was turned to me… he had short red hair and was wearing what looked like a uniform… it was a yellow and green long sleeved shirt with pants of the same color and on the shirt it had the 'beta' symbol… on the back.

It seemed this man… Commander David… noticed I had entered though, because he turned around and when he saw me, he walked up to me and said: "Hey there. You're one of the newbies?" "Yes, my name is Gregory, um… Commander David." I said back. He smiled and said: "Looks like you respect the chain of authority here. That's good! It shows you are respectful of others and their customs!" Before he went on: "Anyways, welcome Gregory. You probably heard Barkin mention this already, but I'm David, a mission commander. I manage new portal masters and give them missions to complete from this base."

"Sounds cool… didn't Barkin say something about registering, though?" I asked. "You've already been registered; that's part of what Barkin did on the way up. As an official portal master, my next job is to educate you about your responsibilities." David said.

"Alright then. Please do." I said. "Alright. Now here's the situation: In a certain region of Skylands-the Cloudbreak Islands-things were largely peaceful, up until recently. There have been attacks in that region-and a lot of 'em. Things were beginning to get out of hand, so we have been looking for portal masters to go restore peace to the region. This is will be your role; you have been assigned as a member of a group that specifically deals with the Cloudbreak Islands and restoring order to the region. This will be the focus of your work. I will give you missions we deem necessary from time-to-time, but you will also be directed by local residents, too." David said.

"So how do I start?" I asked. "Well first, you'll need to learn how to use your portal glove. If you don't know how to use it, you won't get as far. Let me show you…" David said. And he taught me how to use the device. When we were done, he went on:

"And now that you know how to use it, I should introduce you to your first Skylanders! Through all of the times you have been transported from place to place, your personality has been magically analyzed and sent back to us as data, and in spite of what we have seen, we think we have identified some Skylanders you may like to work with, which we will introduce in twos."

"Alright! I can't wait to meet them!" I said. David chuckled and said: "That's the spirit. Now here's one…" And he pressed a few buttons on his terminal. Soon, a floating owl-like creature appeared before me!

He looked very interesting; he had white feathers and a face with a large beak and large eyes. Instead of wings, he had arms with feathers and talons on both of his arms and legs. His legs were also long legs for an owl, that looked stretched out… he had a spiky gold helmet on his head-the back looked completely covered, although the helmet only covered up his forehead and the tip of his beak on the front. He was wearing a maroon short-sleeved shirt and maroon pants, with a dark yellow sash around his waist. He was holding what looked like a small wand with a pink gem in the center. There was also a purple circle on the ground beneath him…

David then said: "Gregory, this is Hoot Loop." And the owl-Hoot Loop-said: "Hello there." And floated over to me(the purple circle beneath him also moved with him). "Pleasure to meet you, Hoot Loop!" I said as I held my hand out. "The pleasure is mine." Hoot Loop replied, as he took my hand with his talon and we shook hands.

Then David went on: "All Skylanders belong to a certain element of eight elements; Air, Fire, Undead, Earth, Magic, Life, Water and Tech. Hoot Loop happens to be a Skylander of the magic element." "That sounds cool. What kind of magic do you specialize in, Hoot Loop?" I asked. "Plenty; I've practiced for a long time. The two tricks that I use against enemies are one that looks like this…"

He said as he took his wand and waved it, causing a little wisp of purple magic to appear that turned around in a spiral before hoot pointed his wand at a nearby chair and the wisp moved over to it and bumped it three times, as though bouncing off each time before it spun and disappeared. "That trick can hit an enemy multiple times. The other one is like this…" He began, but then suddenly he vanished…

"Hoot Loop?" I asked. Then I heard his voice say: "Behind you." And I immediately turned around to see him floating right there! "Whoa! Neat!" I said. "Ha ha. Looks like I got you. Yup, enemies don't expect that one either, so I should be able to help you out!" Hoot Loop said. "Sounds good to me, Hoot Loop!" I said. "Alright; then I'll introduce you to the next candidate…" David said.

And he pressed a few buttons on his terminal and Hoot Loop disappeared before another Skylander appeared: This one had a humanoid shape, but otherwise looked like a bunch of red magma… He had a head with no neck that just barely had a mouth that was above his attached torso with two arms and two legs. There were some yellow spikes on his body and he had yellow circles around his hands and feet…

The Skylander then said: "Hey there!" Before David said: "Gregory, this is Eruptor. He's a Skylander of the fire element…" And Eruptor said: "I'm pretty sure there's no need to say that; there aren't many Skylanders out there who are as fiery as me!" And he started laughing, while little blobs of lava went flying off his body, yet remarkably didn't start a fire…

When Eruptor stopped laughing I said: "Nice to meet you, Eruptor. I'd shake your hand, but it looks a little bit too hot…" And Eruptor immediately started laughing again(causing more blobs of lava to fly…) as he said: "You're a funny one!" Soon he stopped and said: "Ahh, don't worry about it. I appreciate the thought all the same." "So how do you get rid of your enemies Eruptor?" I asked. "Well, just for the sake of not making any more of a mess, I'll just explain it; I can send blobs of lava flying out of my hands and I also can cause an eruption around me! Sound good?" Eruptor asked. "Sure does!" I said. "Alright, good. If you do accept me as your Skylander, I can show you more when we get out in the Cloudbreak Islands." Eruptor said.

Then David used his terminal again and made Eruptor disappear before he said: "That was the first set that we thought would be the best match. What do you think-do they look good? Because we can keep trying if they don't."

I thought on it for a while, but didn't see any reason fit to object-Hoot Loop was clever and seemed fine and Eruptor looked like a hearty fellow with a good personality. "They both look fine to me." I said back. "Alright then! In that case, I'll call them back…" David said and soon Hoot Loop and Eruptor appeared. David then said: "Hoot Loop, Eruptor, congrats! Gregory's said he wants you two to be his Skylanders!"

They both smiled and Hoot Loop said: "Excellent! I won't let you down!" And Eruptor said: "Alright! I'm sure we'll get along fine. You can count on me to stay 'stoked' for the adventure ahead!" And he then proceeded to start laughing. "Yeah, sounds good to me, guys!" I said.

And then I called Hoot Loop and Eruptor into my portal glove and then said: "Say Commander?" "Hm?" David said. "I was just wondering… how are there enough Skylanders to supply portal masters all over Skylands with them?" David grinned and said: "That's a good question. The truth is these Skylanders are clones. As the number of portal masters increased, we didn't have enough Skylanders to meet the demand, so we cloned the originals to supply the ever-growing number of portal masters with Skylanders. So the Hoot Loop and Eruptor traveling with you are clones of the originals as well."

"Wow…" I said. "Yeah, but they are all unique in their own right, too. Anyways, now that you have your Skylanders, that brings me to the next part of all this; In order to guarantee that you are as productive as possible, you won't be adventuring alone. You will be in a group of six, counting you-And I will now call in the people you will be travelling with. They've already finished their training." David said. He went to his terminal and input something before he turned back and said: "Now we just wait…"

And I sat there for what felt like a while until the door opened and five other people walked in;

It was a group composed of two male and three female members:

One of the boys was a teenage boy who was wearing a green T-shirt and black sweat pants and had a pair of white sneakers. He had short black hair as well. He was grinning right now, too…

The other boy looked much younger(he actually looked around 10 or 11) and was wearing a tan T-shirt and gray shorts, yet he had brown "business-casual" shoes… He had short light brown hair and looked rather focused.

And of the females, one was a teenage girl who was wearing a white T-shirt and blue jeans and was wearing sandals over her feet. She had a long blonde ponytail that went down to her lower back and was currently smiling at the moment…

There also was another teenage girl among them; this one was wearing a dark blue tank top and a dark blue skirt with white wisp-like streaks on it, as well as dark blue shoes. She had long brown hair that went down to her shoulder blades. Right now, this girl didn't look too sure of herself…

And the last one was either in her late teens or early twenties, but I doubted she could be any older. She was tall and wearing a black fur coat with black gloves on her hands and black pants with black boots that went up to almost the top of her calves. She had short hair that was a really bright blonde-almost white. She was looking forward with a cool gaze…

At that moment, David said: "Everyone, I'm Commander David. I'll be your leader, in charge of giving your group missions. However, before anything can start, I want you all to meet each other first. So go around and introduce yourselves."

At that point, I decided to go talk to the teenage boy first. I walked up to him and said: "Hello." And he said: "Hi there!" Back. Then he went on: "My name's Aaron. Who are you?" "I'm Gregory." I said back. "Gregory, huh? Good name. You excited to be here?" Aaron asked. "Of course!" I said.

And then we talked. Over the course of the discussion, I learned Aaron had come to Skylands just for the sake of adventure, much like me. After words, we ended the discussion and I moved on to the younger boy.

When I approached him, I said: "Hi." And he said: "Hi." Back. Then I asked: "What's your name?" "I'm Michael. How about you?" He asked back. "My name is Gregory." I said.

And we started a conversation. Over the course of it, I learned that Michael had come to Skylands not just for adventure, but also hoping to work with groups. He seemed like an optimistic kid. Soon enough I said goodbye and moved on.

Next I talked to the first of the women I bumped into… who happened to initiate the conversation with me(it was the girl in the white T-shirt with the blonde ponytail). She said: "Hi there!" And I responded by saying: "Hello." She then said: "My name's Darcy. What's yours?" "I'm Gregory." I said back.

And we began to talk. As I spoke with her, it became clear Darcy was a very high-energy person. She was very friendly and(like Aaron and I) she came to Skylands looking for an adventure.

After words, the conversation came to a close and I found the tall woman and said: "Hi." And she said: "Hello…" Back. "I'm Gregory. What's your name?" I asked. "Irene." She said back.

Talking to her was harder, because Irene wasn't much of a talker. We talked a bit, but I never really was able to determine why she had come to Skylands…

I then sought out the last person I hadn't talked to, which was the other teenage girl in blue. I approached her and said: "Hi." "Hi…" The girl said back. "My name's Gregory. What's yours?" I asked. "My name is Kathrynne. Nice to meet you, Gregory…" She said back. "Thanks. It's nice to meet you also, Kathrynne." I said.

Kathrynne slowly warmed up over the course of the discussion. I learned that(like most of us) she had come looking for adventure, but she also had come to try and boost her confidence…

When the conversations ended, David then said: "Now that you've all met each other, I'll give your group your first mission." David said. At last! Of course I had been happy all of these years, but I really was now, because this was my first experience of real… adventure!


	2. Searching For Tessa

Skylanders: Cloudbreak Adventure

Chapter Two-Searching for Tessa-

We all were excited hearing that we were about to receive our first mission and turned our attention to David. He then said: "Right now we have heard from a village that is located in a giant tree-which is called Woodburrow-that a resident of that village has gone missing. The villagers have requested our assistance in locating this individual-she's supposedly a fox named Tessa who wears clothing made out of leaves. The villagers speculate that she went in the direction of Mount Cloudbreak riding on the back of a giant bird she owns."

"Mount Cloudbreak? What's that?" Kathrynne asked. "Mount Cloudbreak is a volcano that erupts every 100 years and when it does, it replenishes all of the magic in Skylands. The magic element could not exist without it, and as such, it is a tremendously important landmark. The eruption itself is actually triggered by four giant creatures-known as the 'elementals'-that gather together to set it off. But that aside, we don't know how far Tessa got, and it is not likely she made it too far, so here are your orders: I will teleport you to Dazzling Valley-at the base of Mount Cloudbreak-where you will search for her. From there, you are to return Tessa to Woodburrow and then you will receive your orders from the Chieftess there-she is the village elder. Is that clear?"

"Yes sir." Michael said. "Good. Now follow me…" David said as he led us out of his office and down the hall until we arrived at a locked room-which he opened-and let us into.

The room had a large computer terminal in it, as well as around a dozen circular orange discs on the ground… David then said: "Each of you, take your position on one of those platforms. I'll teleport you to your destination using those."

We all took our places on the discs and David fiddled with the terminal a bit before there was a blinding flash of light… and when I could see again, I was standing with Aaron, Michael, Darcy, Kathrynne and Irene in an impressive valley where there were lights all around us in the distance that kept changing color… they went from being purple, to red, to green, to orange and back again…

"Wow! How pretty!" Darcy said. "What a strange phenomenon… what's going on here?" Michael asked. "Well Commander David said that this is close to a volcano that replenishes the magic in Skylands, right? So if the volcano itself is full of magical energy, do you think that, with the valley being next door, it could be a side effect of being exposed to such quantities of magic?" I asked. "That could be so." Irene said. "I can see why they call it 'Dazzling Valley'! Let's enjoy the view as we press on!" Darcy said as she ran off and we all followed her.

And then we started to travel through this amazing valley… the view remained beautiful as we kept going… until we saw some hideous-looking creatures in the distance:

They were small creatures with green circular bodies, which were in between being the size of an orange and the size of a grapefruit. They had small arms and legs and weird eyes that looked like upside down drops with no eyelids or irises, and they had mouths that were full of fangs that were each about one-fourth the size of their faces… It looked like there were a dozen of them and they were running around in circles…

"Ewww! What are those things?!" Kathrynne screamed. But it seemed the creatures heard her, because they turned around and started running at us! "What are those?" Aaron asked. "I… don't think they're friendly." Irene said.

"I think Irene's right! We'd better get our Skylanders out!" Michael said. I called out Eruptor and I saw each of my allies call out theirs with their portal gloves;

"Go for it, Rattle Shake!" Aaron said and soon a giant yellow snake with arms and brown patterns on him appeared. He was wearing a brown vest that covered up a black shirt he was wearing with a black belt on the bottom and he had a black hat with a white feather that had an ancient west look. He was armed with an odd snake that was held inside of a pistol-like object… I had no idea how that worked…

Then Michael said: "Let's go, Wrecking Ball!" And a little blue creature appeared; his body was blue and round with yellow spikes on his sides and he had some red antennae on the middle of his forehead and he had four short legs.

And then Darcy said: "Go get 'em, Hot Dog!" and a little red dog that looked like he was made of lava(with some yellow spikes on his body) appeared in front of her.

And then Irene said: "Take 'em out, Blast Zone." And a really unusual creature appeared then: He was essentially a living flame inside a black-and-gold suit of armor and a helmet of the same color too, yet flames were blasting from out of his feet and keeping him aloft. When he appeared, two bombs appeared in his hands…

And finally Kathrynne said: "Good luck, Whirlwind!" And an unusual dragon appeared in front of Kathrynne… she had a blue body with feathery wings and a feathery tail and a white underbelly. She had somewhat long, pointed ears and her eyes were unusually big, with a single horn in between them.

As the ugly little creatures got closer, I saw Rattle Shake grin as he pointed his snake-gun up and pulled on a trigger, which caused the snake to spit venom at one of them, which was instantly beaten. Wrecking Ball also jumped up and a green sphere formed around him, before he went flying forward and squashed two more of the creatures! Eruptor also ran in and sent two blobs of lava flying from his hands which burned off two more of those things.

One of them ended up getting close to Eruptor and it squatted down before it leapt at Eruptor to bite him, but just as it did, I saw Irene finish whispering something to Blast Zone, and he lobbed a bomb over Eruptor's head which hit the creature and took it out. "Good work, Blast Zone." Irene said. "Thanks, Irene!" I said, yet she looked like she was focusing too much to respond.

I then turned and saw Whirlwind advancing on three more of them. At that moment, Whirlwind's horn started to glow many different colors at once and she sent a rainbow-colored ball flying from it in an arc which nailed one of those things and got rid of them. The remaining two tried to jump and bite Whirlwind, but Whirlwind just flapped her wings and created a dark gray storm cloud that floated forward and when one of the creatures dove into it, all I saw was a bolt of lightning zap it… and the thing got knocked on its back, although the last one got past the cloud and bite Whirlwind, at which point it released its jaws and fell down, but then I saw… a blob of venom come flying out of nowhere and hit the ugly little thing, taking it out-looks like Rattle Shake and Aaron had lent a hand.

The last of the creatures came up, I heard Darcy say: "Hot Dog, finish them off! Fire wall!" And Hot Dog reared up on his back legs and raised his paws up before a small arrow-shaped wall of flames came up and Hot Dog slammed his paws down and caused the wall to go flying at the creatures, which ended up being toasted by it and no more remained.

"Whoa yeah! That was a breeze!" Aaron said. "Yes it was… a little too easy." Irene said. "Well, I doubt that's the last of them. Let's stay alert." I said. They all nodded and we called our Skylanders back before we moved on.

We continued to move forward in the valley for a while, but still had no luck finding Tessa… All the same though, Darcy seemed to really be enjoying the majesty of the valley. "Ooh, it's so nice here! I hope all of Skylands is this beautiful!" Darcy said. Irene looked at her before she said: "Don't forget: the whole reason we're here is to find Tessa." "Yes, you are right Irene, but still… it's nice to enjoy all of the small things every now and again, and as long as we keep looking for her, what's wrong with enjoying things along the way?" Aaron asked. "I'll agree with that, but Irene's also right in saying that we shouldn't let ourselves get distracted… let's just enjoy it in moderation." I said.

From there, we started to talk every now and again as we marched on, until a while later, when we saw more of those little ugly green creatures-there were about eight of them-but they had two weird looking plants with them…

They were bulbous plants that had a cylinder-like tip pointing up(which had what looked like fangs growing in a circle around the very top…) and had red petals on the ground. The plant's bulbous part was colored yellow-green and circular edge near the fang-like things was colored red. The rest of the space in between was colored purple, and it had what looked like spikes growing on it…

When the ugly green creatures saw us, however, they ran up to us again. I called out Hoot Loop while my teammates called out the same Skylanders they did last time-Rattle Shake, Wrecking Ball, Blast Zone, Hot Dog and Whirlwind. Rattle Shake got in the first attack and shot snake venom at some of them while Hot Dog mowed down more of them with a wall of fire, but as we took down the ugly green creatures, those plants in back coughed up more of them from out of their fangs!

Upon seeing this, I said: "Hoot Loop, teleport behind the plants and attack them!" And he vanished before he started sending those little wisps of magic out of his wand, which hit the plant consecutively. "Blast Zone, target the other one!" Irene said, and Blast Zone threw bombs at the other plant. "Whirlwind, help Hoot Loop! Pitch in with your rainbows!" Kathrynne said. Whirlwind then ran over and shot rainbow balls from her horn that went over the creatures and hit the plants.

Unfortunately, the ugly green creatures didn't like this one bit and ran up to Blast Zone and started biting him! This caused Blast Zone to turn around and fly away from them. The ones closest to Whirlwind and Hoot Loop also tried to bite them both. Some bit Whirlwind and others tried to bite Hoot Loop, but he simply teleported away and reappeared nearby and hit them with magic. "Hot Dog; get rid of those things that are attacking Blast Zone!" Darcy said and Hot spat fireballs to get rid of the ones that had been biting Blast Zone and chasing him. "Rattle Shake, get in there and help Hoot Loop and Whirlwind!" Aaron said.

Rattle Shake slithered up to the ugly green creatures and shot them with snake venom as he went. It seemed the creatures got fed up with Rattle Shake soon enough, because they turned around and dove for him! Rattle Shake calmly responded to this by jumping at them too and he spun his tail in a circle around him, which hit the creatures first and knocked them on their backs, all the while, the plants were spitting out more of them.

Now that the way was clear, Blast Zone started blasting the plant that was near him, while Hoot Loop, Whirlwind and Rattle Shake all ganged up on the other one. The creatures that the plant closest to Blast Zone had been spitting were now closing in on him and Michael said: "Wrecking Ball, squish those things! And Blast Zone- leave some space in between your legs!"

Blast Zone looked confused, but did so while Wrecking Ball jumped and formed the green sphere and zoomed forward in between Blast Zone's legs and squashed the creatures. Blast Zone then hurled more bombs at the plant. Wrecking Ball kept going and by the time he crashed into the plant, it fell apart! Soon Hoot Loop, Whirlwind and Rattle Shake were done with the other one, too! After Hot Dog burned the last of the creatures with his fire walls, the coast was clear and we were ready to continue.

We called back our Skylanders and kept marching through the valley for what felt like an hour. By now, I was starting to get discouraged… "Hmm… I hope we're going in the right direction…" I said. "This is starting to get old…" Irene said, until Michael said: "SSH! Listen-do you hear that noise?"

And we immediately quieted down. We heard what sounded like footsteps running… in the distance… and they were coming this way!" We all looked at each other and ran forward until we saw a giant red-orange chicken-like bird sprinting towards us-and something was riding it! "That's it! That _HAS_ to be Tessa!" Aaron said. We ran forward and soon the rider stopped the bird, which came to a screeching halt.

Now that we were closer, we could see them in more detail: The bird was red-orange and had long wings with dark brown talons and a dark brown beak. It had yellow feathers on top of its head and yellow tail feathers, along with a saddle on its back and reigns around its beak.

The rider was an orange fox who wore clothing made of green leaves… it consisted of a dress, short gloves and shoes and she also had wooden armlets around her hands. She had tiny black spots all over her cheeks and had orange hair on her head…

The rider immediately looked over the bird's shoulder and said: "Are you Skylanders?" We all looked at each other before Michael said: "No, but we do have them in our possession. We're portal masters." The rider sighed before she said: "Oh, thank the elementals! Listen-you have to help me. My village was attacked and right now I'm being chased by-" but then we heard a voice say: "AHA! Thought you could get away, did you?!"

And we saw some odd, elf-like creatures approaching… there were three of them and they were wearing red clothing that covered up all of their bodies except their pale green faces and their clothes had black stripes on them. They had pointy ears and empty, white eyes and were armed with spear-like weapons and were accompanied by five of the ugly green creatures…

The rider then said: "Oh no!" And she made the bird run behind us before she said: "Those Drow are after me! Help me, please!" "Leave it to us!" Aaron said. We then got ready to call out our Skylanders.

I called out Eruptor and I saw Aaron call out an odd green plant creature that was surprisingly humanoid with two arms and legs. He had red plants growing on the top of his head and was armed with what looked like a bazooka...

Michael then called out a monkey-like creature that was wearing a lot of golden armor… he had a helmet with silver wavy lines on top of it and gold shoulder pads and a gold plate over his torso. He had white arms and unusual golden hands with fingers and more of those wavy silver lines on them and he had a white beard. He was wearing golden sheets of armor around his white, hairy legs and they were almost as long as his legs themselves…

Darcy called out an interesting-looking yellow creature with two arms and legs. He had red eyebrows, yet pale-blue, spiky hair and a rather large mouth. He was wearing a navy blue shirt and red shorts and had golden armlets around his red hands, as well as golden armor on his thighs. He had red feet and a long tail that was red on the top, but yellow on the bottom. He was also holding an odd black baton-like weapon that was lit with flames on both ends.

Irene then called out a shorter elf-like creature, which almost looked like the ones we were fighting… She had piercing, white eyes that lacked any irises or pupils and long pale green ears and skin. She was wearing brown top and brown pants with a brown skirt, as well as brown gloves that went a little higher than her wrists and brown shoes and(oddly enough) had a brown cloth covering her mouth. She also had blue hair that was in a waist length braid. This particular Skylander was carrying two daggers to defend herself.

Kathrynne called out a very strange-looking creature… the upper half of his body looked organic, but the lower half of his body looked mechanical; he had gold skin on his face and a purple goatee and wore a pair of dark purple goggles on his head with green lenses. He was wearing a dark purple long sleeved shirt and had black gloves covering his hands. He had an arrow and what looked like a device to launch it with on his left hand and that was his upper body… his lower body consisted of what was quite clearly four golden mechanical legs that looked like spider legs, but they had more mechanical joints…

When the Drow saw us one said: "What's this? Skylanders! Get rid of them!" and they advanced on our Skylanders.

Eruptor hurled blobs of lava at them, but the one who was really doing damage was Kathrynne's Skylander… It turns out the one arrow it looked like on his glove was really three crammed next to each other, side-by-side, because when he launched them, they split and hit each of those Drow at the same time! Unfortunately, when the ugly creatures saw Kathrynne's Skylander succeeding, they immediately switched their attention to him! They ran up to him and prepared to bite him, but then Kathrynne said: "Spy Rise, take to the sky!" And her Skylander-Spy Rise- jumped back and shot a string out from his back legs at a tree branch behind us. The string stuck and Spy Rise used the string to pull himself up to the branch!

The ugly creatures fell flat on their faces and I heard Darcy say: "Fire Kraken, get those ugly things!" And that Skylander-Fire Kraken-ran up to them and jumped up over them and spun his tail around him, which hit them and eliminated them. But just then, a Drow ran in and swung his spear in a downward motion at Fire Kraken, knocking him down. The Drow then pointed his spear at Fire Kraken, but then I heard Aaron say: "Zook, help Fire Kraken out!" And the plant Skylander-Zook-shot a large rocket-like shell out of his bazooka which hit the Drow and knocked him on his side! Fire Kraken then got up and started hitting the Drow with his baton.

It looked like they had the situation under control, so I switched my attention back to Eruptor. He was hurling lava blobs at another Drow that was fighting Michael's Skylander. The Drow swung his spear at Michael's Skylander, which missed and Michael's Skylander responded by punching him-but when he punched, parts of his hands detached and started rotating! Unexpectedly enough, it looked like his hands were mechanical… He smacked the Drow around for a bit before the Drow tripped Michael's Skylander, but rather than completely going after him, the Drow simply hit Grilla Drilla with the hilt of his spear and ran after Eruptor!

Seeing the advancing Drow, Eruptor turned and ran off and then Michael said: "Grilla Drilla, help him! Plant a turret!" And Michael's Skylander-Grilla Drilla-somehow put his legs together, but when he did the armor around his legs closed them in and now looked like a drill, which he drove into the ground before jumping forward and spreading his legs out so that they were visible again… but he had left a small green turret that was growing from the ground with grass around it and Grilla Drilla stepped out of the way as the turret shot a coconut at the Drow that was chasing Eruptor-and got a perfect hit on his back! This even knocked the Drow over, which prompted Eruptor to get out of range of the Drow and fire off lava balls. As the Drow recovered, Grilla Drilla ran up behind him and punched him in the back of the head, which knocked the Drow down. He looked unconscious, so Grilla Drilla and Eruptor ran over to help the others.

It looked like Fire Kraken and Spy Rise had finished the Drow they were fighting off, and now we were all going after the last one. I saw Zook bring up a wall of bamboo in front of him before he shot his bazooka at the Drow, which the Drow evaded. Spy Rise was still shooting at the Drow from the safety of the tree branch which backed the Drow up even further. Everyone advanced on the Drow(even Spy Rise came down from the tree branch) and soon Fire Kraken got up close and spun his tail around the Drow. The Drow avoided the attack, and got ready to counter attack Fire Kraken, but just then I heard Irene say: "Now Stealth Elf!" And her Skylander-Stealth Elf-suddenly emerged out of thin air and hit the Drow in the back with her daggers. I heard the Drow say "Oop!" Before he fell forward and stopped the fall with his hands. Fire Kraken hit him on the head with his baton and Stealth Elf attacked him again before the Drow said: "Ugh! There are too many of them! Retreat!" And he and all the other Drow got up and fled.

I saw Zook smile and say: "Ha-ha! That's how you do it!" "Yup! They certainly looked 'burned' out!" Eruptor said before he started laughing and sending off more lava… I then heard the fox say: "Whew! You really saved the day back there!" And we all turned around as she rode up to us on the bird's back. She then went on: "It's good to see that you portal masters and your Skylanders have come! And not a moment too soon, either!" "Not a problem! So you're Tessa, right?" Aaron asked. The fox looked surprised as she said: "That's right. How did you know…?"

And we then explained to Tessa about Commander David and our mission. By the end, Tessa looked really enthusiastic and said: "YES! I knew help would come! Well come on then-I'll lead you to Woodburrow, where you can meet our Chieftess!" Then she turned forward and said: "Come on, Whiskers! Let's lead the way!" And that bird squawked before it started walking off. We all looked at each other before we followed Tessa to whatever may lie in wait.


	3. To Woodburrow!

Skylanders: Cloudbreak Adventure

Chapter Three-To Woodburrow!-

It was dusk now and we had been following Tessa and Whiskers for hours. Tessa had led us through the valley and up a mountain, but it wasn't a normal mountain… it was lush and green with many trees, flowers and kinds of ivy. "We've made it pretty far… how much further until we get to Woodburrow, Tessa?" Michael asked. "We're not far now. Just be patient and stay on the lookout for enemies." Tessa answered.

We kept climbing until we soon arrived at an incline where we found more of those bulbous plants and ugly green creatures… but now there were new creatures with them! These creatures were about three feet tall and were colored yellow. They had fairly humanoid bodies with two arms and two legs, but they had ears on their heads that had an outer edge of skin… but the inside of their ears were empty, that is to say, there was no skin there! They also had odd feet with two toes and their heels were very pointed, looking almost like another toe… They wore white vests that went down to their thighs and had red sashes around their waists. They also were armed with big clubs…

As we approached Tessa sharply whispered: "Stop!" But this ended up catching the yellow creatures' attention. They looked our way and ran up to us and one of them said: "Halt! You must state your business before you can-" but then he looked us over and when he saw the portal gloves on our arms, he finally said: "You… are you portal masters?" Tessa quickly stepped in and said: "Those are Greebles and they're troublemakers! They've been stealing things, attacking people and they've even gone after Woodburrow! You've got to stop them!" "Ah, so you're on Woodburrow's side, are you? Well then, there's no need for any further questions then. Greebles, get rid of them!" One of them said and they raised their clubs!

I quickly called out Eruptor, while Aaron called out Rattle Shake, Michael called out Grilla Drilla, Irene called out Stealth Elf, Darcy called out Fire Kraken and Kathrynne called out Whirlwind. The bulbous plants in the back started spitting out the ugly green creatures while Grilla Drilla started planting turrets and Eruptor hit the Greebles with blobs of lava. I turned and saw a Greeble run up close to Whirlwind, who kicked up a storm cloud that zapped the Greeble. Fire Kraken ran up from behind and started hitting the Greeble with his baton, too!

By now, some of the ugly green creatures had been spawned and they ran over. One bit Fire Kraken from behind and after it did, Whirlwind launched a rainbow ball at it, which hit the ugly green creature and took it out without harming Fire Kraken.

I saw Stealth Elf had snuck ahead and was attacking a plant with her daggers. A Greeble was sneaking up on her in turn as soon as he saw this, but thankfully Rattle Shake backed Stealth Elf up and shot venom at the Greeble with his pistol before he slithered in closer to Stealth Elf and the plants. Some of the ugly green creatures tried to stop Rattle Shake, but Rattle Shake just leapt and spun to attack them all at once. He then shot venom at the plant Stealth Elf was attacking, and it didn't take long before the plant fell apart with their teamwork.

Rattle Shake and Stealth Elf started on the next one while I turned my attention back to Eruptor. He was lobbing blobs of lava at a Greeble that Grilla Drilla was fighting. This continued until a couple of ugly green creatures ran up to him and bit him. Eruptor discharged lava from his body to take down the ugly green creatures, all while Grilla Drilla tried to hit the Greeble with his fists. The Greeble avoided the hit, though and counter attacked by hitting Grilla Drilla squarely on the head with his club, which knocked Grilla Drilla down! The Greeble then hit Grilla Drilla again while Eruptor ran in and lobbed lava at the Greeble, which caused him to run when he was hit.

Eruptor then gave chase while Grilla Drilla planted a turret that shot the Greeble a couple of times. This kept going until Stealth Elf appeared out of thin air in front of the Greeble and hit him with her daggers, knocking him over. Eruptor stopped at the downed Greeble and discharged lava to finish him off. I then saw that Stealth Elf and Rattle Shake had finished off the plants and that one Greeble they had been fighting a while back.

At that moment, Whirlwind and Fire Kraken were ganging up on another Greeble; Fire Kraken spun the Greeble with his tail, sweeping the Greeble off his feet and upward, while Whirlwind hit the Greeble with a rainbow ball and Fire Kraken attacked it with his baton. Unfortunately, the last stragglers of the ugly green creatures came up and bit Whirlwind! Whirlwind kicked up a storm cloud and ran through it, which prompted the ugly green creatures to give chase… and they were immediately zapped! By now the Greeble had recovered and ran up to Whirlwind around the storm cloud and Rattle Shake pitched in by shooting him with a venom shot right in his face, which caused him to stop. Stealth Elf ran up and took him down with her daggers for the win.

When everything was done, Tessa said: "Good job! There are probably more of them up ahead though, so stay alert!" We then started walking up ahead and as we did, I heard Darcy ask: "Say Tessa, what were those ugly little green things, anyway?" "Oh, those? They're called Chompies. They're weak creatures, but are also extremely territorial-as you saw-and they also have a strong pack mentality." Tessa replied.

We kept going until we came to a clearing with many trees… but there were six cages hanging from them by rope knots! Some of the cages contained more raccoon-like creatures while others had creatures that were like lionesses. When we stepped out into the clearing, Tessa was shocked. "What?! What have those Greebles done?!" She said. At that moment we heard a woman's voice say: "Tessa? Is that you?"

And we all turned the direction of the voice. It came from a cage that had an odd lioness-like creature in it. It was difficult to see her features with the bars in her way, but it looked like she was wearing an orange tank top and orange pants with odd green shoes and she had brown hair in a ponytail. When Tessa saw her, she said: "Is that you… Ms. Poppy?" "Yes it is." The lioness creature replied. "Are you okay up there?" Tessa asked. "I'm alright, but you'd better get out of here soon! You can't let those Greebles cage you too…" Ms. Poppy replied. "Those Greebles are gone. We just defeated them." Kathrynne said. Ms. Poppy turned in Kathrynne's direction and said: "And who are you?"

We each introduced ourselves and explained that we were portal masters. By the end, the caged creatures were all really excited and Ms. Poppy said: "Oh that's great! Well then, portal masters, could you please get us down from here?" "That should be a cinch." Irene said and she called out Stealth Elf and pointed at a rope knot that was holding a cage to a tree. Stealth Elf nodded and climbed up the tree and cut the rope, which caused the cage to come down and break.

Stealth Elf repeated this for each cage until all of the creatures were freed. At the end, they all were really excited and Ms. Poppy said: "Thanks ever so much, portal masters! You don't know how much of a relief it is to be out of there!" "Glad we could help." Kathrynne said. "So what are you going to do now, Ms. Poppy?" Tessa asked. "That's a good question… If we hang around here, the Greebles will catch us and cage us up again…" Ms. Poppy replied.

"Why don't they come with us then? The more the merrier!" Aaron said. "Are you sure?" A raccoon-like creature asked. "I think it's a great idea." Tessa said. Ms. Poppy sighed and said: "Oh, that's such a relief… you have our thanks!" "Well come on then! Onward to Woodburrow!" Tessa said, but then Ms. Poppy's eyes widened and she said: "Wait, Tessa!"

Tessa turned around and said: "What?" "It's not going to be that easy to get to Woodburrow! You can't just expect to march right in!" Ms. Poppy said. "Why not?" Tessa asked. "The Greebles have set up a blockade on Dandelion Hill! They've set up a whole formation of Greebles that have bamboo hand cannons that can lob big stones at you at the top of the hill! If you go there, they'll bombard us with rocks until we turn back!" Ms. Poppy said. "Well so what? With the Skylanders, we'll be able to get through!" Tessa said. "Are you sure that's wise, Tessa? Why don't we take another route?" I asked. "There's no time for that! Remember- my village was attacked recently! If we don't get there quickly, there's no telling what will happen to it!" Tessa said back.

Most of us weren't convinced, but Irene said: "We have Skylanders that can probably do it… Let's give it a try." "Yeah, Exactly!" Tessa said. "But they have the advantage of terrain!" I said. "Well, at times like this, sometimes you've just got to believe in yourself…" Michael said. I sighed and said: "Guess so…" And then Tessa said: "Right! Now let's get going!"

And we called our Skylanders back before we all went together until we were at the bottom of a steep hill. By now, the sky was getting dark and night didn't seem too far away… We looked up and saw some silhouettes in the distance. "Is this the hill, Ms. Poppy?" Darcy asked. "That's right. This is Dandelion Hill, so the Greebles will be up there…" "So we'd better come up with a plan then." I said. "Exactly. To start, does anyone have a Skylander that can hit enemies up an incline _that_ size?" Ms. Poppy asked. "I have this one!" Darcy said and she called out Hot Dog. "And I have Zook here…" Aaron said as he called Zook out. "With so many trees nearby, I bet this one will work…" Kathrynne said as she called out Spy Rise. "I have one who can sneak right up there…" Irene said as she called Stealth Elf out. "I may not have one that could hit them from down here, but he can teleport his way up!" I said as I called out Hoot Loop.

Then Ms. Poppy turned to Michael and said: "And what about you?" "I don't have any Skylander like that but… hey Tessa?" Michael said. "What?" She asked. "Could you and your bird… uh, Whiskers, fly me up there?" Michael asked. "That's awfully risky..." Tessa replied. "Just get me close." Michael said. Tessa sighed and then said: "…Okay." "And if you could get everyone else who has a Skylander on the hilltop up there too, that would help a lot. I know that's a big request, but if you can, we can direct our Skylanders more effectively." Michael said. Tessa sighed again and said: "Well, okay."

"Alright then. Good luck, portal masters and Skylanders! I know you all can do it!" Ms. Poppy said. Irene and I then directed our Skylanders up the hill, while Kathrynne sent Spy Rise out and Tessa flew Michael up there and Darcy and Aaron stayed where they were. Hoot Loop teleported his way up and Stealth Elf vanished again, all while Spy Rise jumped forward and aimed a thread at a tree branch above him and wrapped it around the branch, after which he pulled himself up and swung across the trees to the top and Tessa and Whiskers flew Michael up there.

As I waited to be flown up by Tessa and Whiskers, I saw Hot Dog send walls of fire up the hill at the Greebles on the top and Zook lobbed pineapple-shaped mortar shells from his bazooka that sailed up to the top and hit them too. Of course, this did not sit well with the Greebles and they returned fire with those stones that flew all the way down here! We all had to move every now and again to avoid them. When it was finally my turn, Tessa flew me up to a tree branch where I saw everything;

There were five Greebles with those bamboo hand cannons and they were split between who they were targeting; some were trying to hit the Skylanders up at the top of the hill while others were still trying to hit Hot Dog and Zook. There were also three Greebles with clubs that were after our Skylanders that were here, too. I saw Hoot Loop teleporting around, blasting the Greebles with magic and Stealth Elf would appear every now and again and attack the Greebles with her daggers. Spy Rise was attacking from the tree branches, shooting those little arrows and I saw Michael had sent out Grilla Drilla, who was fighting the Greebles with clubs.

Soon Hoot Loop shot magic at a Greeble with a hand cannon who fell down and wouldn't get up-he was down. A Greeble that Grilla Drilla was chasing with a club ran up behind Hoot Loop though and I said: "Hoot Loop, there's an enemy behind you!" And Hoot Loop teleported away. The Greeble then turned around, but when he did, he saw Grilla Drilla right in front of him. "Hi there." Grilla Drilla said before he punched the Greeble in the face, knocking him over.

Grilla Drilla continued to pound the Greeble he was after while Stealth Elf blindsided a Greeble that was shooting at Hot Dog and Zook. Another Greeble with a club was sneaking up behind her, but then he got hit by Spy Rise's arrows! Spy Rise kept shooting them, but then a Greeble with a hand cannon hit him with a stone! The attack spun Spy Rise around a bit before Spy Rise swung down onto the hill itself to avoid further fire as he kept shooting off arrows.

Hoot Loop was hitting the last Greeble with a club with more of his magic and when the Greeble closed in, he teleported away again, but unfortunately a Greeble with a hand cannon hit Hoot Loop with a stone as he reappeared! I then heard the Greeble suddenly say: "AHH! Hot, hot, hot!" though and turned to see a fire wall that Hot Dog had sent up had toasted him! And as the wall passed by and died down, the Greeble wouldn't get up either!

By now, Grilla Drilla had just finished off the Greeble with the club he had been attacking(although he did get hit by a stone as he finished) , so he ran after a Greeble with a hand cannon. The Greeble immediately panicked and started to run, but as he did, I saw a pineapple shell come flying up towards where the Greeble was running! The shell nailed the Greeble and knocked him down, allowing Grilla Drilla to catch up and pummel him! Spy Rise also pitched in with his arrows and soon that Greeble was down too! Between our Skylanders' attacks, it wasn't long before the rest of the Greebles were defeated.

When all the Greebles were finished, Tessa gave a sigh of relief and said: "Good job! I'll go get the others now, so be patient, please!" And flew down with Whiskers. We all waited and soon Tessa came back up the hill, followed by Darcy, Aaron, Hot Dog, Zook and the rest of the creatures we rescued. Tessa then said: "Alright, we're really close to Woodburrow now! Let's keep moving!"

And we called our Skylanders back as Tessa continued to lead us through the trail. By now it was night time and you could see the stars in the sky. While the sky was beautiful, we all knew there was no time to stop now- it wasn't safe here.

We kept traveling until soon we saw what looked like… red lights in the distance… "What's that?" Darcy asked. "Somehow I don't think it's a signal flare…" Irene said, but as she said this, Tessa stopped Whiskers. "Tessa? What is it?" I asked. "...Something's very wrong!" She said back. Ms. Poppy then said: "I think Tessa's right… we don't ever see red light on the mountain. The only explanation is if it's…" "…FIRE! I have to see if it's in Woodburrow! Everybody run! RUN!" Tessa yelled.

As we sprinted ahead, we could see a clearing in front of a giant tree with steel gates in the distance. We approached and Tessa gasped. "What's wrong, Tessa?" Aaron asked. Tessa's voice shook as she said: "Those are the gates to Woodburrow!" And then she went on: "Are we too late…? Is Woodburrow already being burned down?!" "The only way we're going to know for sure is if we get close enough so that we're not looking at a bunch of specks in the distance…" Irene said.

We continued to run up to the gates and as we did, the red lights got brighter, but they looked like they were above the ground… "Floating flames…? That can't be right…" Tessa said. As we approached, Ms. Poppy said: "I don't think it is. Look closer, by the lights themselves…" And we saw that by the flickering lights, there were purple faces next to them, but they had Greeble ears… "Is that…a Greeble?" Kathrynne asked. "If it is, then that means those lights… must be flames…on torches…" Michael said. "And if they have torches and they're at the gates, they must be planning to burn the village down! Hurry!" Tessa said.

We ran in closer and as we did, we started to hear voices. We heard a gruff voice say: "You heard our demands, old man! Turn over the 100,000 gold coins now, or we'll burn this village down to the ground!" Then we heard a rather posh-sounding voice answer: "I keep telling you, we don't have the amount you're asking for! Please just take the town treasury funds of 72,000 gold coins and leave, it's all we have!

By now, we were getting close to the gates, and we saw that there was indeed a small squad of Greebles, some with torches in their hands, others with hand cannons and others still had cutlasses for some reason... And they all had purple skin instead of yellow skin… We then saw in front of the gates that one Greeble with a torch was standing in front of what looked like a cougar-like creature, although I had trouble making out its features…

The Greeble in front of the cougar-like creature then pointed his torch at the cougar-like creature through the steel bars, causing the cougar-like creature to back up immediately as the Greeble said in his gruff voice: "QUIET! We didn't come out here to work out a payment plan, you moron…our boss told us to either come back with the gold coins in full or to burn down this village-and if what you say is true and you really don't have the necessary amount of coins, then you leave us no choice, but to-"

This was escalading very fast! Luckily, just now we were all coming up behind the Greebles and Darcy yelled: "Just who do you think you are?!" This caused all of the Greebles to turn around. It looked like there were three Greebles with torches, two with cutlasses and two with hand cannons. When the same Greeble who was threatening the cougar-like creature saw us, he said: "Who are you?!" None of us responded and the Greeble then went on: "What's the matter, cat got your tongue? Well, no matter…We have a job to do, and we can't have you around messing things up! Don't you boys and girls know that it's dangerous to play with fire?" "Really? I hadn't heard." I joked. "FOOLS! Alright then, come on punks! It's time to burn!" The Greeble said angrily.

And then he and the other Greebles started to advance on us! I called out Hoot Loop, Aaron called out Rattle Shake, Michael called out Wrecking Ball, Darcy called out Fire Kraken, Kathrynne called out Whirlwind and Irene called out Stealth Elf. Stealth Elf, Whirlwind and Fire Kraken ran up to the Greebles and Wrecking Ball curled up into a ball before spinning forward and slamming into a Greeble with a hand cannon, knocking him on his back, while Rattle Shake stayed behind and shot the Greebles with snake venom.

Hoot Loop sent magic flying from his wand that hit a Greeble with a torch and the magic continued to hit him while Fire Kraken ran up to the Greebles with cutlasses and spun his tail around, sweeping the Greebles off their feet and upward. Just then though, Fire Kraken got hit squarely in between his eyes with a stone. This knocked him down as the two Greebles with cutlasses recovered.

One of the cutlass-wielding Greebles ran off somewhere else, but the other one angrily ran towards Fire Kraken! Fire Kraken quickly got up on his feet, but the Greeble had already drawn his cutlass back before he hit Fire Kraken with it. Just then though, I saw the Greeble flinch as he got hit in the back by Rattle Shake's snake venom. Fire Kraken then started pounding the Greeble with his baton.

Now that things looked under control, I switched my attention to the other Greeble that had run off. I couldn't find him, but I did see Stealth Elf attack a torch-bearing Greeble from behind with her daggers. The Greeble quickly recovered, turned around and tried to thrust his torch at Stealth Elf! Stealth Elf quickly jumped back, but then I saw the Greeble with the cutlass come out of nowhere and hit Stealth Elf from behind with his cutlass while she was distracted.

Stealth Elf shut her eyes and shook in pain, trying to keep her cool as she ran to the side. Both Greebles gave chase, but then Whirlwind emerged out of nowhere and hit the Greeble with the cutlass with a rainbow. This made him get knocked off balance and stop. I decided to pitch in and said: "Hoot Loop, give Stealth Elf a hand!"

And when he saw Stealth Elf running from the torch-bearer, he sent those wisps of magic flying from his wand that hit the torch-bearer over and over. The Greeble with the cutlass was recovering, but fortunately Wrecking Ball bowled right over him in his little green sphere. At that point, the Greeble with the cutlass wouldn't get up-he was down. Soon enough, Hoot Loop's magic made the torch-bearer kneel down in place. He looked like he wouldn't be getting up, and I also saw that Fire Kraken had made short work of the other cutlass-wielding Greeble and Rattle Shake had taken down one of the Greebles with a hand cannon!

Hoot Loop blasted one of the torch bearing-Greebles with more magic and Fire Kraken even snuck up on that same Greeble and hit him with his baton! This made the torch-bearing Greeble kneel in place also.

From there, Rattle Shake took a few more shots at the other Greeble with a hand cannon and the Greeble took a retaliatory shot at Rattle Shake. Rattle Shake slithered forward-away from the stone-while Wrecking Ball came rolling in out of nowhere and slammed the Greeble with a hand cannon into the side of a tree! As Wrecking Ball ran off, the Greeble slowly slid down and wouldn't do anything more.

All of our Skylanders turned our attention to the last Greeble that opposed us. It was dark, but by the flames of his torch we could see that he was panicking. Whirlwind was the closest so she sent a rainbow flying at his forehead, which hit him and made him flinch. Wrecking Ball immediately decided to take advantage of this opportunity by forming that green sphere around him and rolling at the Greeble. Just as the Greeble recovered, Wrecking Ball hit him head-on and knocked the Greeble down-but the force of Wrecking Ball's attack had also sent the Greeble's torch flying out of his hand!

"Oops…" Wrecking Ball said. This didn't look good… if that torch hit the ground, it would cause a brush fire! "Somebody get that torch!" Tessa yelled. "Well how are we supposed to?! It's flying in an arc and we could get burned!" Michael said. The torch just kept flying up and now it was headed on its way back down!

"This is bad!" I said. But just then, Stealth Elf appeared out of nowhere next to the torch and she leapt up after it… and she caught it! Stealth Elf landed on the ground and turned her face away from us before I saw one of her hands come up by her mouth and the flame get extinguished. She must have pulled down the cloth covering her mouth and blown it out… but why did she feel like she had to hide her face?

By now, the Greeble that Wrecking Ball had knocked down had gotten up and said: "It's time to get out of here! We must alert the boss!" Upon hearing this, I immediately gestured for everyone else to come over and I said: "We can't let those Greebles walk away with their torches-if they cause a fire somewhere else everything will be ruined!" "I agree! Get Hoot Loop on one of the Greebles that has a torch, Gregory, and I'll send Rattle Shake on the other." Aaron said.

I nodded and called Hoot Loop over while Aaron did the same with Rattle Shake and as the Greebles ran towards us, Rattle Shake and Hoot Loop got in their way and Hoot Loop said: "Stop right there!" "Yes… don't move a muscle." Rattle Shake said. And the Greebles all did, looking both annoyed and a little scared. They turned around and saw Whirlwind, Fire Kraken, Stealth Elf and Wrecking Ball were behind them too.

"…What?" One finally asked. "We can't let you leave here with those. We're not going to destroy you, but if you want to leave, you'll have to give us your torches!" I said. The two Greebles with the torches looked at each other before they gave angry sighs and walked up to Rattle Shake and Hoot Loop and each shoved their torches into Rattle Shake's hand and Hoot Loop's free talons. Hoot Loop and Rattle Shake blew out both of the torches before the Greebles said: "There, we gave you our torches. Now would you get out of the way?!"

Rattle Shake, Hoot Loop, Aaron, Darcy, Irene, Michael, Kathrynne and I all did as the Greebles all left in a huff. After words, Tessa said: "Oh, thank you everyone! That would have been a disaster if it weren't for you! Now let's go to Woodburrow!" And she directed Whiskers to the gate(with Ms. Poppy and the other creatures in tow with us) and we all walked up to the steel bars and as we were there, Tessa said: "It's okay, everyone! The Greebles are gone!"

And then some more lioness-like creatures and raccoon-like creatures poked their heads out from around the area and the cougar-like creature returned to the bars. I could see him in better detail now:

He was well-dressed with gray slacks, brown shoes, a blue shirt with a white undershirt that had white long sleeves and a red cape. He also had glasses and short brown hair. When he saw Tessa he said: "Tessa…is that you?!" "Yes! I'm back!" Tessa replied. The cougar-like creature then turned to face the right(I wasn't sure if there were other creatures there) and he said: "It's alright! Raise the gates!" And the steel gates went up! Tessa then looked back at us and said: "Come on in." And then we called our Skylanders back and walked into Woodburrow with Tessa.

The cougar-like creature sighed and looked at Tessa as he said: "Tessa, I am glad to see that you're safe, but you shouldn't have run off like that… Everyone was really worried about you." "Aw, you shouldn't have worried; I can take care of myself! Besides, it was worth it-I just brought the Skylanders back with me!" Tessa said. The cougar-like creature then turned to us and gave us a puzzled look before he said: "These? These are Skylanders?" "Them? Oh no, they're portal masters." Tessa said back. "We were dispatched by the Beach-Beta base. We would be glad to assist you in any way we can." I said.

The cougar-like creature gave a sigh of relief and said: "That is wonderful news! All the same, though, it is far too late for any assistance to take place, I am afraid… You'll have to wait until tomorrow."

"I see…" I said. "What shall we do in the meantime?" Kathrynne asked. "For now, I think a good night's rest would be in order. We have some quarters that we rent out to travelers that are currently not in use that you could all use for the night." The cougar-like creature said. "Sounds like a plan. I'll head back to my place and we can meet up again in the morning! See you later everyone!" Tessa said as she directed Whiskers off in the distance…

The cougar-like creature sighed before he turned to us and said: "I shall take you there now. But first…" And he turned to some creatures on the left and said: "Lower the gates." "Yes sir." A raccoon-like creature said.

We could hear the gates come down as he led us across a giant branch to a wooden building and stood by it. When we all were nearby he said: "First of all, I want to take this opportunity to thank you for coming, portal masters. We are already very grateful for you saving our village. It is an honor to be in the presence of Skylands' heroes." "Thank you, but I think we have a long way to go until we're heroes…" Michael said.

The cougar-like creature smiled faintly before he said: "Now as for tonight, there should be enough quarters in there for all of you to have your own rooms. Once you have each selected your quarters, rest up there and meet me by the village fountain by the gates in the morning, and we'll discuss what shall be done next. Do I need to explain anything again?"

"Not at all." Irene said. "Good." The cougar-like creature said. "By the way, what's your name?" Kathrynne asked. "I am Rufus. I work directly with the Chieftess in maintaining Woodburrow. May I ask each of your names?" the cougar-like creature asked. We each told him ours and he said: "Those are wonderful names. Now if you will excuse me, I have to get back to the villagers. See you in the morning." Rufus said as he walked off.

We all looked at each other and entered the building. When we went in, there were stairs and a few floors with around a dozen rooms available. We all chose our own(I chose one on the bottom floor) and went in.

The inside of the room I had chosen had two big wooden pillars(almost like small tree trunks) in the center with a hammock strung between them and a couple of windows on the back walls, along with a nightstand near the hammock that had a vase with flowers in it. There was also a wooden desk with a wooden chair in a corner.

It was a pretty simple layout, but it would do for now. I got in the hammock and closed my eyes, wondering what tomorrow would bring…


	4. Return of the Chieftess

Skylanders: Cloudbreak Adventure

Chapter Four-Return of the Chieftess-

I awoke the following morning to a ray of sunshine from the windows, shining down on my face. I got out of the hammock in the room I was in and left both the room and the wooden building.

I stepped out into the bright village, where the various creatures were walking about. The village was much more inviting in the daytime, but of course, now was not the time to observe-I still had business to do.

I remembered Rufus's instructions, which were to: "Meet me by the village fountain by the gates in the morning, and we'll discuss what shall be done next." I headed back to where I remembered the gates being from last night and soon found an enormous fountain right in front of them. I walked up to it and saw Rufus waiting there.

"Hey there, Rufus!" I said. He turned to face me and said: "Good morning, Gregory." I looked around and didn't see any of my friends here, so I said: "Um… where are the others?" "They haven't arrived yet. We'll just have to wait until they come." Rufus said.

So we waited as the others trickled in one-by-one until all of us humans were present, although Tessa still wasn't here… Soon enough though, we heard Tessa's voice say: "Hey guys! Sorry to keep you waiting!"

And we turned around to see Tessa running up to us. As she caught up, Rufus said: "Looks like everyone's present. Now I will tell you about-" But just then Tessa said: "Hold that thought, Rufus-I need to see the Chieftess first." And ran off. "Wait! Tessa-!" Rufus said, but she was gone in a flash…

Rufus looked down as I said: "Is she always like that?" Rufus sighed and said: "More or less…" "Well, Tessa does raise a good point in that we're supposed to receive our orders from the Chieftess-were is she, anyway?" Michael asked. "That's part of what I was trying to tell you all-the Chieftess was actually kidnapped shortly after Tessa left the village!" Rufus said. "WHAT?!" We all said. "Yes… It's terribly unfortunate, but a small squad of Greebles came in and abducted her. They've taken her to-" Rufus began, but then Tessa ran back in and said: "Hey Rufus, where's the Chieftess? I couldn't find her anywhere in the Great Hollow!"

Rufus frowned a little before he said: "Tessa, you really should have let me finish! I was just telling the portal masters that the Chieftess was kidnapped shortly after you left Woodburrow!" "WHAT?" Tessa said. Rufus then turned to us and said: "We overheard the Greebles that abducted the Cheiftess on their way out say that they were going to Cascade Glade, so that is where they are headed. Now I know I am not designated to give you orders, but if I may make a _suggestion_, for a mission of this importance I would hope that you would all travel together, for the sake of having the highest possible odds of success!" Rufus said.

"Well, that makes sense." Aaron said. "Although that's kind of unfortunate as far as speed is concerned; I can't fit six portal masters on Whiskers's back, so if we were all going to go together, we'd have to travel on foot…" Tessa said. "Well then, you'll have to be as quick as possible with no stops if you do all go as a team." Rufus said. "One thing's for sure though; the Chieftess is the one who we were told to take orders from and she is the leader of this village, so as Rufus says, failure is not an option." Michael said. "Well, if that's the case then don't worry, because I have a way we can get there without Whiskers. It will likely take longer, but if we really hurry then we just may do it." Tessa said.

"Alright then. Tessa, you take them to the glade. I wish you all luck and your safe return with the Chieftess." Rufus said. "Okay then! Let's go!" Tessa said.

She then led us up to a giant hollow in the middle of an enormous tree in the center of the village. It looked like there were other creatures in here, too… We walked inside as Darcy said: "What is this place, Tessa?" "This is the Great Hollow. This is where the Chieftess manages Woodburrow from. You could think of it as her workplace." Tessa replied.

She led us down a wooden ramp to the very back, where we saw some chutes that went down through the tree… Tessa then stopped by them and Kathrynne said: "What are we stopping here for, Tessa?" "This is where we'll be leaving to find the Chieftess from." Tessa replied. We all looked at her skeptically as she went on: "These are irrigation chutes that we use to water the roots of Woodburrow. Normally we dump water down the chutes that goes down to the base of the tree, where it soaks in the ground, but it looks like it's big enough for any of you to take. So who's going first?"

"Well hold on, how far is the drop?" I asked. "It's a few hundred feet…" Tessa said. "And we're going to be landing on…?" Irene asked. "Well… solid ground, but don't worry-the bottom of the chute is at ground level, so the rushing water will push you all the way down and you'll be pushed forward onto the ground. The landing may be a little firm, but… well, you can handle that, right?" Tessa asked. We all looked at each other before Aaron finally said: "Alright then, Tessa-I'll go first." "Okay! Go on ahead!" Tessa said.

Aaron went to the mouth of the chute and slid down, where he fell out of sight right away! After a few minutes, Tessa said: "Alright, he should be on the bottom now… who's going next?" "I guess I'll go!" Darcy said.

And then she went down. This repeated again with Michael, until I finally volunteered to go after words. I slid down the chute and immediately went flying down at high speed. It was a lot like going down a slide at a water park, only without getting wet… it did involve getting quite dusty, though, because soon enough I arrived at the bottom, where the chute did indeed go down so it was less than an inch above the ground and I kept going forward until I slid into the dusty earth in front of me...

I got up and waited for Irene and Kathrynne to come down and finally, Tessa came down too! Tessa got up and brushed the dirt off of her before she said: "Alright! Not too bad, huh?" "It was beyond any slide, I'll give you that…" Michael said. "So how are we going to get back to Woodburrow once we get back with the Chieftess?" I asked. "Oh don't worry about that-there's a gondola that will take us back up to the village. The only reason I didn't take it was to save time." Tessa said back. Then she went on: "Cascade Glade is to the East from here-I'll lead the way."

And she took off, but just as soon as she did, she turned around and said: "Oh yeah, that reminds me… I was so wrapped up in getting to Woodburrow before I forgot to ask for your names!" We all told Tessa our names and she said: "Thanks for telling me. That'll help us communicate. Now then, let's go! On to Cascade Glade!" And we marched as quickly as our legs would carry us.

(Meanwhile, in a room in a castle far away…)

A short bald man in a black robe stood on a throne with a tall green troll wearing a brown vest and gray pants next to him. A purple Greeble is kneeling before him talking to the man.

When the Greeble finished talking, the short bald man said: "What do you mean, your expedition was sabotaged? Who stopped you?!" "The portal masters did, lord Kaos…they used their Skylanders to defeat us…" The Greeble said to the man. The troll looked at Kaos and said: "That's not good timing…the other Greeble party just arrived in Cascade Glade with that Cheiftess…" The Greeble then asked: "What are your orders, my liege?" "You are dismissed until I call you back to receive them." Kaos said. "Yes sir." The Greeble said as he left the room.

Then Kaos jumped off the throne and the troll said: "What are you going to do about the portal masters, sir?" "…I had hoped that the Greebles would be able to bring the Chieftess here so I could interrogate her directly, but since the portal masters are in the picture again, I'm not taking any chances. I'm going to have the Greeble party that has the Chieftess get the information now and abandon her as they return here." Kaos said. "But sir, how are you going to stop their advance? I mean, the portal masters are probably going after the Chieftess as we speak." The troll said. "It's simple Glumshanks-I'll just 'evilize' more Greebles with the petrified darkness that we have and send them to fight the portal masters. If the portal masters don't lose, it will at least buy the party with the Cheiftess enough time. Oh, bless the petrified darkness! We have already seen such success with the Greebles-the way it makes them lose touch with any good inside of them and makes them more aggressive! It's the perfect tool for our plans!" Kaos said to the troll.

"It sounds fine sir, but if you are sending reinforcements, why abandon the Chieftess at all?" Glumshanks asked. "Remember-the important thing is that once the Greebles learn the information I want, they must _get back here and tell me_! I don't want to risk losing that information, even if it means getting an imperfect result." Kaos said. Then he went on: "Now get the idol for communicating with that party." "Yes sir, Lord Kaos." Glumshanks said.

Glumshanks left and soon returned with a brown idol and handed it to Kaos. Kaos then held it and soon the idol started to glow red and Kaos said: "Major Woalf… this is Kaos. Can you hear me?" "Yes sir?" A Greeble's voice answered through the idol. "I have new orders for you." Kaos said. "Okay. What are they, sir?" Woalf asked. "You know of the portal masters? Well, some have been discovered and they are probably coming after you. I want you to find a remote area of the glade and to get the information I want from the Chieftess." Kaos said. "Okay… and what do I do when I have the information?" Woalf asked. "Just leave the Chieftess and her pitiful advisors there. It'll keep the portal masters away from you." Kaos said. "Yes sir." Woalf said. "Oh and Woalf? One more thing…" Kaos said. "Sir?" Woalf replied. "Don't be afraid to get rough if the Chieftess doesn't give the information the first time you ask." Kaos said. There was what sounded like muffled laughter from the other side before Woalf said: "I like your thinking, sir. Don't worry-I'll get that information." "Good. You may go now." Kaos said.

(And back to Tessa, Gregory, Darcy, Aaron, Michael Irene and Kathrynne…)

We had been traveling for a while now. Soon we came up to a coastal bluff with many insects and Tessa said: "Here we are. At last, we've arrived in Cascade Glade!" "Is there any place that the Greebles would be more likely to go to, Tessa?" I asked. "Not in particular. Let's just hurry up!" Tessa said.

And we immediately started rushing through the glade. We kept going, without finding much, although soon we walked down a hill and came to a somewhat foreboding place… it was a circular clearing with long reeds of grass surrounding the area and while there were several insects and even some wildlife in the glade, there weren't any bugs or animals here and it was completely quiet…

As we went on, Aaron, Michael, Darcy, Irene, Kathrynne and I all instinctively slowed down. Tessa soon turned around and said: "What's wrong?" "Doesn't something seem a little off about this place?" Kathrynne asked. "I was thinking the same thing…" Michael said. "Oh come on! We don't have time for this! Let's just keep going!" Tessa said as she quickly marched on.

But looking down at the reeds, I thought I saw something glint by one of the reeds. Was something…there? I quickly went after Tessa, and it was a good thing I did, because when I did, I heard a loud 'BOOM!' from those reeds and a purple sphere about the size of a grapefruit went flying at Tessa's legs!

Tessa froze up, but I grabbed her arm and pulled her back as the purple sphere hit the hill. There was immediate laughter from all around the area after this. "Who's there?!" Darcy yelled. Only laughter answered us. "Come out here, you cowards! We know you're here!" Irene yelled. "Ooh, feisty! Well, I suppose we might as well…" A voice answered.

And then some more purple Greebles walked through the reeds. Two had cutlasses, but three of them were armed with odd guns; they were purple(like the Greebles) and the front had a circular muzzle and a long cylinder-shaped midsection with a circular sphere connected at the back. "Greebles!" Tessa said. "Yes! And you are really darn lucky that guy pulled you back when he did!" One of the Greebles holding the guns said. And the Greebles with the guns started laughing. "Ugh…" Tessa grumbled. We all knew it was time to let our Skylanders do the rest of the talking, though!

I called out Eruptor, Aaron called out Rattle Shake, Michael called out Grilla Drilla, Darcy called out Hot Dog, Irene called out Stealth Elf and Kathrynne called out Whirlwind. Whirlwind ran back up the hill and started shooting rainbows at the Greebles and Eruptor followed her, raining blobs of lava down on them, too. Hot Dog and Rattle Shake stayed where they were and Hot Dog sent walls of fire at the Greebles while Rattle Shake shot them with snake venom. And Grilla Drilla and Stealth Elf ran right up to the Greebles.

The Greebles with the guns started shooting while the Greebles with cutlasses ran up to Stealth Elf and Grilla Drilla. One of the Greeble's shots hit Hot Dog, causing him to run off. As one of the cutlass-wielding Greebles ran up to Grilla Drilla, Grilla Drilla suddenly planted a turret in the ground that shot a coconut at him and made him flinch, which prompted Grilla Drilla to start pummeling that Greeble.

Eruptor pitched in and lobbed a blob of lava onto that Greeble, but then one of the Greebles with the guns shot at Eruptor and hit him. Eruptor moved away after this while the cutlass-wielding Greeble that Grilla Drilla wasn't attacking had run up to Rattle Shake and was getting closer to Hot Dog. Rattle Shake shot venom at him, but the Greeble dodged it and attacked Rattle Shake with his cutlass.

Rattle Shake recoiled at the hit, but recovered and jumped up and spun his tail around, knocking the Greeble down. Hot Dog even ran in and spat fire at the Greeble, too!

As Grilla Drilla continued to pound his target, a gun Greeble shot him with one of those massive bullets! This knocked Grilla Drilla back and the cutlass-wielding Greeble recovered and attacked Grilla Drilla with his cutlass! Thankfully, Eruptor soon broke up the Greeble's attacks by raining lava on him.

Now I switched my attention to the gun Greebles. They had taken a few hits from Whirlwind and Eruptor, but were still going. Eruptor and Whirlwind kept attacking while the gun Greebles were dividing their attacks and soon Stealth Elf appeared out of nowhere behind one and hit him with her daggers. Whirlwind immediately pitched in by shooting rainbows at that Greeble, which made him flinch! Stealth Elf ran over to another gun Greeble and attacked him too, while Hot Dog sent more walls of fire the Greeble's way, too! It wasn't long before the two gun Greebles that Whirlwind, Stealth Elf and Hot Dog were attacking were down, and Rattle Shake and Grilla Drilla had finished off their targets, too!

Now that only one Greeble was left, he backed up and said: "Dah! These portal masters are stronger than I thought… let's get out of here!" And the Greebles all ran off.

We all then called our Skylanders back and everyone started to get going. I prepared to follow them, but then I heard Tessa say: "Um…" And I turned around and saw her. "What is it?" I asked. "Thanks for saving me, Gregory. I don't think I'd still be walking if it weren't for you…" Tessa said. I grinned as I said: "You're welcome. I know rescuing the Chieftess is important to you, but let this experience be a reminder to you to not ever be too rash."

Then I heard Michael say: "Hey! Are you coming?" And then Tessa and I ran to catch up with them as we continued to explore the glade.

We kept travelling, until soon we saw a towering cave before us… and it looked like it was the only remaining path ahead. Tessa led us into the cave and it was fairly dark, but there was also a hole in the top of the cave that let some light down. We walked forward and soon heard a: "Halt!" from somewhere…

We looked around and soon two very large purple Greebles in front of us a ways stepped forward-they were each about twice the size of a regular one. These Greebles were wearing gray armor from the bottom of their necks down that looked very heavy. I also spotted two Greebles that were coming up behind them that had those guns that we had seen before…

"More Greebles again?" Darcy said. "That's right. We _WERE_ sent to defeat you, after all." One of the armored Greebles said. "Then there's no more need for talk. Come and get it!" Irene said.

The armored Greebles advanced as I called out Hoot Loop, Aaron called out Zook, Michael called out Wrecking Ball, Darcy called out Fire Kraken, Irene called out Blast Zone and Kathrynne called out Spy Rise. The Greebles moved as fast as they could go with their armor weighing them down while Zook took the chance to lob another pineapple-shaped mortar at one of the armored Greebles… but it just bounced off of the Greeble when it hit! "HUH?" We said, while Zook said: "Hey! What gives?" The Greebles laughed as one of them said: "Don't you get it? We're invincible. You can't stop us!"

One of the Greebles with a gun followed up by shooting Zook while he was still dumbfounded at this result. I walked up next to Hoot Loop and whispered: "Hit one of the ones in back." And he nodded and teleported behind the Greeble that just shot Zook and blasted him with magic. Unfortunately, while this was going on, the other Greeble with a gun turned and shot Hoot Loop! I saw Kathrynne whispering into Spy Rise's ear and Spy Rise nodded and then positioned his back to the cave wall on the left and jumped up, shooting a string from his back legs at a rock higher up on the wall and Spy Rise successfully wrapped the string around the rock and Spy Rise pulled himself up into the air.

By now, the armored Greebles had closed in and were close to Fire Kraken and Wrecking Ball. Each armored Greeble drew their arm back and immediately performed a(rather clumsy looking) skipping punch aimed at one! Fire Kraken and Wrecking Ball leapt back, and this caused the Greebles to lose their footing and fall flat on their faces, but then something strange happened…it looked like an aquamarine bubble around them suddenly became visible and shattered…

A Greeble with a gun then shot Fire Kraken while this was going on and just then Spy Rise from up near the ceiling shot several arrows all around the area, and while the Greebles with the guns got hit, we ended up seeing something we weren't expecting: the arrows also hit the armored Greebles who… flinched… it looked like they were trying to hide it, but there was no mistaking it… that time-when they were attacked-they had felt pain…

"Did that attack just work?" Aaron asked. "Hmm… so much for invincible…" I said. "Then let's keep trying! Fire Kraken, get 'em!" Darcy said. And Fire Kraken ran up to the armored Greeble in front of him and started hitting it with his baton while Blast Zone threw bombs at the other one. Soon the armored Greebles pushed themselves to their feet and stood upright and we saw the aquamarine bubbles reappear. At this point, Fire Kraken's baton and Blast's bombs started harmlessly bouncing off of them again…

"Fire Kraken, back up!" Darcy yelled. And Fire Kraken immediately did so while Michael said: "Time to go, Wrecking Ball! Roll on off!" And Wrecking Ball formed that green sphere around him before he rolled past the Greebles.

Hoot Loop was still hitting the Greebles in back with magic and Spy Rise was still shooting arrows at them. Between the two of them, they were making pretty steady progress. One of them-annoyed at Spy Rise-immediately turned around and shot at Spy Rise. Spy Rise immediately extended the string and dropped back down to ground level where he dropped down to avoid the shot, but luckily, this created a distraction that let Wrecking Ball roll on in-and right into that Greeble! Wrecking Ball slammed into the Greeble hard and Zook followed up with a well-aimed pineapple-shaped mortar that hit the Greeble too and the Greeble fell on his back and wouldn't get up!

By now, the armored Greebles were running up to Blast Zone, Spy Rise and Zook in the back of the cave… one was after Blast Zone and running him into a corner while the other was running up to Zook, but for some reason, Zook didn't even look like he was interested in the Greeble… When the Greebles were within close range of their targets, they did that skipping punch again and once again, we saw the aquamarine bubbles appear and shatter. Blast Zone was very gutsy and decided to tackle the Greeble head on by blasting the flames from his boots and rocketing forward at high speed, while Zook brought up a wall of bamboo in front of him that the Greeble hit-so that was his plan all along!

The armored Greeble that was after Blast Zone wasn't expecting this and ended up getting slammed hard by Blast Zone and fell on his back while the armored Greeble that had hit the bamboo wall tripped and fell forward. Spy Rise backed Blast Zone up by shooting the armored Greeble that had fallen over with arrows while Zook blasted the armored Greeble in front of him with a couple rocket-like shells before he ran off.

"There it is again… why did our attacks work now?" Michael asked. "Has anyone else noticed that our attacks only start working when they attack?" Kathrynne asked. "That… sounds right." I said. "Heh-heh…so they found out about the shields our armor generates…" One of the armored Greebles said. "Wha-you blabbermouth! Don't just _tell_ them!" The other armored Greeble said. "But they obviously figured it out…" The first armored Greeble said. "So that settles it then! We'll hit them when they try to hit us!" Darcy said.

As the armored Greebles recovered, Spy Rise, Wrecking Ball and Blast Zone all attacked the Greeble with the gun in back and he went down very quickly! From there, defeating the armored Greebles without their gun-Greeble buddies was a breeze!

Once we had defeated all of them, the Greebles fled. We all called our Skylanders back and then kept going.

We traveled through the cave until we exited it… but now we were much higher up in the Glade! It looked like we had exited on top of a dirt covered hill with some plants growing on it.

We kept traveling on, although soon I was starting to get discouraged… "It feels like we've been at this for a while now…" I said. "Yeah…" Kathrynne said back. "I'm starting to wonder just how realistic this is. How do we even know we're going in the right direction to find the Chieftess? What if she-" Darcy began, but then Irene said: "SSH! Quiet! Listen-do you hear that?"

And we all stopped and heard what sounded like… faint voices in the distance… "More Greebles?" Michael asked. "I'm not sure…" Darcy said. "Well why don't we go look over the hillside? Maybe we can get a jump on them if they are." Tessa said. We nodded and walked over to the hillside and peeked over without making ourselves visible.

Down there, we saw what looked like a cyan frog-and-fish like creature wearing a gold robe on the left, a tall blue four-armed beast with white fur on his head, arms and two legs in a maroon-and-gold short sleeved shirt on the right and a tan gerbil in a blue-and purple robe in the center with an odd had that was the same color… she also was wearing a pair of glasses and had gold earrings…

The frog-and-fish like creature looked panicked and he said: "Ooh, what are we going to do? How are we supposed to get back home all by ourselves?" The four-armed beast then said: "Calm down! You have to keep your cool, or we won't do as well." Then he went on: "At least the Greebles have lost interest in us…" Then we heard the gerbil speak. She said in a very old-sounding voice: "Do not fear; I know the way. And the people of Woodburrow would not abandon us. We must have faith that-"

But by now Tessa was shaking. "Tessa?" I whispered. "That's-that's-" she stammered before she got up and yelled: "CHIEFTESS!" And slid down the dirt covered hill!

"Tessa, WAIT!" I yelled as I slid down after her. Everyone else came down after me, as well. All three of the creatures below looked up as we all came down and the gerbil's face lit up as she said: "Tessa! Long time no see!" Tessa came sliding down and said to the gerbil: "Chieftess, are you alright?" "Yes, yes, do not fear-I seem to be all in one piece." The Chieftess replied. As we all came down, the Cheiftess and the other two creatures turned to face us and the Chieftess said: "And who might they be?" "These are the portal masters. They were sent here to help us!" And then Tessa introduced us all, one-by-one.

By the time Tessa was done, the Chieftess and the other two creatures looked thrilled. "Oh thank goodness! The portal masters and Skylanders are back!" The frog-and-fish creature said. "This is such a relief-your timing couldn't be better!" The four-armed beast said. Then the Chieftess said: "Yes, I always knew they would return someday-especially in these times." And then Tessa said: "Yeah! Well now that we've found you all, it's time to go back to Woodburrow!" "That sounds good to me." The Chieftess replied. And we all followed Tessa back.

(Meanwhile, in Kaos's castle…)

Kaos laughed maniacally in the room he was in before the door opened and Glumshanks said: "Master? Is everything alright?" "Of course everything's alright, Glumshanks. Why wouldn't everything be alright? Haven't you heard the news?" Kaos asked. "Well, seeing as how the portal masters and the Skylanders just recovered the Chieftess according to one of the surveying parties, I just thought things might be a little worse off." Glumshanks replied.

"So you obviously _haven't_ heard the news then. Well let me tell you: That's perfectly fine with me. I'm just fine with having that withered old windbag off my hands now. Know why?" Kaos asked. "Why?" Glumshanks asked. "Because I already got the information I needed out of that sappy, spineless Chieftess. Turns out she wasn't as hard to scare as I thought-Woalf only had to threaten her once before she complied!" Kaos said. "So what did she say?" Glumshanks asked.

"According to her, the eruption of Mount Cloudbreak happens every 100 years and is triggered by the four beasts known as the 'Elementals' coming to the volcano and using their powers to replenish the magic in Skylands-" Kaos began, but then Glumshanks said: "So how does this help you?" "Don't interrupt me Glumshanks!" Kaos yelled, causing Glumshanks to flinch.

"…Now as I was saying, the elementals come together at that time before using their powers. I also learned that the next eruption is due to occur very soon-as in, a few months. So if I evilize one, _just one_ of the elementals before it returns to the volcano, the dark magic the elemental will be infected with will be transmitted to the volcano, and cause the volcano to become infected with evil and while it will still spew the magic necessary to replenish the magic in Skylands, it will also spew out the DARKNESS!" Kaos said. "The darkness… those were the days, back when that was still in Skylands." Glumshanks said.

"Exactly! The darkness breeds disorder and malice in Skylands-it's almost like a natural phenomenon that evilizes everything it affects, albeit on a much smaller scale. But with that _and _the ability to evilize things- that's when things will get good! With so much disorder in Skylands and so many creatures fighting each other, that will be the perfect opening I need to rise to power!" And Kaos started laughing manically again.

"But sir, we don't even know where any of the elementals are yet." Glumshanks replied. "And what do you think my next move is going to be, then?" Kaos asked. "That is all well and good sir, but how do you plan to find one?" Glumshanks asked. "I'll see to it that the Greebles will scout all across this region, looking for every bit of information that they can find! It's only a matter of time." Kaos said.

(And back to the portal masters, Tessa, the Chieftess and the creatures…)

At last, we were back at Woodburrow-in fact, we were exactly where we started, at the roots of the towering tree…

"So how are we going to get back up there?" Michael asked. "It should be somewhere around here… Wait just a second…" Tessa said as she started searching around the grass. The Chieftess turned to us and said: "Tessa is looking for a horn that is hidden down here. We blow the horn to call the gondola staff, at which point they'll check to see if it's us, and then they'll send the gondola down to take us into Woodburrow." "It's hidden? What keeps other creatures or animals from finding it, then?" I asked. "It's enchanted so it will not appear before someone who is not from Woodburrow. Not bad, eh?" The Chieftess asked.

"HERE IT IS!" Tessa said as she ran back and blew the horn. A while passed, but soon we saw a platform-like lift coming down on a pulley, until it was down on our level…

"Right, everybody on!" The Chieftess said, and we all got onto the gondola. Soon, we felt it ascending into the air and arrived at Woodburrow.

At last, we had finally rescued the Chieftess! Now I couldn't help but wonder what mission she would give us next…


	5. Strife in the savannah

Skylanders: Cloudbreak Adventure

Chapter Five-Strife in the savannah-

When we arrived in Woodburrow, all of the creatures in the village immediately ran up to us as soon as they saw the Chieftess. Everyone was really glad and excited…it felt good to see them all so happy.

The Chieftess quieted everybody down and said: "Thank you for your warm welcome. Yes, it is good to be back in Woodburrow. And it is thanks to these six portal masters and Tessa that I have returned safely. So please give them a hand!" and the creatures then applauded us and soon enough the villagers all cleared out.

After the crowd was gone, we all approached the Chieftess and she said: "Thank you once again for rescuing us, portal masters. I don't know how long that could have taken if it weren't for you." "Aw, you're welcome. That's what we're here for!" Aaron said. "Now how long were all of you going to be staying at Woodburrow?" The Chieftess asked. "Indefinitely." I replied. "Really? In that case, I'd like to know your names if you will be staying for a while. What are they?" The Chieftess asked.

We then introduced ourselves and she said: "Alright then. It's a pleasure to meet you all." Then Michael asked: "So what should we do next, Chieftess? Our commander told us to take our next orders from you." "Yes, about that…right now, I need to talk to my advisors in the Great Hollow so they can fill me in on what I missed during my absence, so I am afraid I can't give you orders just yet. Please just enjoy yourselves until I am available next." The Chieftess said.

"Oh…Okay." Aaron said. And so, we had some downtime on our hands-I went across the village and soon found an odd blue device that had a bulbous shape-much like those plants that spat out Chompies-along with gray two hippo-like creatures.

One was very tall and wore a brown vest and had a thin, curly black mustache. He was very muscular and held a rather heavy-looking dumbbell in one of his hands…The other was shorter and also wore a brown vest. He had a slightly thicker, brown mustache and had a bucket full of…water it seemed…bound to his back and held a mop with both of his hands. As I walked by though, the shorter one immediately said: "Oh hi! You're one of the portal masters from before!"

I turned to him and said: "Yes, that's right. My name is Gregory. Who are you?" the shorter one said: "My name is Tuk, Gregory…" and then he pointed at the taller hippo and said: "And this giant lug here is my brother Gorm." The taller one then said: "Hello." "Alright, Tuk, Gorm...so what can I do for you?" I asked. "Well actually Gregory, we have something to show you." Tuk said. "Okay… What?" I asked. "This!" Tuk said as he pointed to the blue device. He then went on: "This is the Power Pod. Long ago when portal masters before you were here, we built this device and they used it to make their Skylanders stronger. It still works, thanks to our repairs." "Yes, the Power Pod is useful for helping Skylanders become the best they can be for explorations." Gorm said.

"Really? That's pretty cool. But… why'd you have to repair it?" I asked. "It was…partly shattered…" Gorm began, but then Tuk said: "Yeah, by you!" Then he turned to me and said: "One day I heard something shatter and came here only to see him by it with fragments on the ground." Then he turned back to Gorm and said: "Why did you smash that thing anyway?" "Well, I just wanted to see if it worked on creatures that weren't Skylanders..." Gorm replied. "Well, I hope the next thing you break doesn't make so much work for us…" Tuk said to Gorm before he turned to me and said: "The day after you got here, Rufus told us to have it repaired right away and we busted our butts getting it ready in time."

"Yes, I guess I have become the best I can be in terms of strength, even without the Power Pod's help." Gorm said confidently. Tuk rolled his eyes as Gorm said to me: "Perhaps you Skylanders would like to try and reach my standard of perfection?" "Sounds good to me! So how does it work?" I asked. "As your Skylanders gain experience, they may get new abilities by going inside. It'll open up for them, so give it a try!" Tuk said.

I sent in Hoot Loop and Eruptor, but they didn't say they had any new powers. "Hmm… oh well. It looks like they need more experiences before it'll work. So come on back anytime!" Tuk said. "Okay, thanks Tuk, Gorm!" I said.

I then spent the rest of the day in Woodburrow, not doing much of anything until night time, at which point I returned to the wooden building that had the rooms that we had picked out and I rested in mine for the night.

The next morning, I went to the fountain where I saw Rufus waiting. "Hi Rufus." I said when I saw him. He immediately turned to me and said: "Gregory! What perfect timing! I have a message for you from the Chieftess." "Oh you do? What did she say?" I asked. "She said that she wanted you to meet her near the village altar-which is where the Chieftess goes whenever she uses magic. Do you know how to get there?" Rufus asked. "No." I answered back. "Alright, then I'll tell you how…" Rufus said before he gave me the directions and said: "Good luck, Gregory." "Thank you Rufus." I said.

And then I followed Rufus's directions to a circular platform that had a pair of stairs leading up to it. I went up the stairs and there were unusual symbols on the ground and stone arches all around and a large slab of stone in the middle-and the Chieftess was behind it!" "Hello, Chieftess." I said. "Hello, Gregory." She replied. "Rufus told me that you wanted to meet with me here. Is there anything I can help you with?" I asked. "Hold your horses, youngster-I actually told Rufus to tell all of you portal masters that I wanted to meet with you, because I had something to show you all. So please wait until all the others have arrived." The Chieftess said. "Oh…alright then." I said.

So I waited for a while until all of the others trickled in one-by-one and the Chieftess then said: "Looks like everyone's here. Well then, I'll tell you all what I need to. First of all, I still need a bit more time to determine what to do next, so I still don't have any orders to give you. But don't worry; you won't be left idle for long. Let me show you what I mean…" And then she paused and raised her hands at the stone slab in the middle and sent a purple light out of her fingertips at it continuously until soon a bright pillar of light came down from the sky and onto the stone and flashed.

When we could see again, we saw a blue, hologram like projection of David's head over the stone! Currently, the back of David's head was facing us and he said to the Chieftess: "Testing, one, two, three…testing...Chieftess, can you hear me?" "Yes, Commander David! I have just established the projection and your portal masters are behind you." The Chieftess said cheerfully. David's head then turned around and when he saw us, he said: "Hey everybody. I heard the news that you all rescued the Chieftess. That's good work. Keep that up!"

Then the Chieftess said: "By channeling magic into the altar, I have made it possible for a projection of Commander David to appear here at any time, so that if you need to communicate with him or take orders from him, you can." "That's good. It'll save time if we don't have to go back to the Beach Beta base." Michael said. "Indeed. Anyway, I talked to Commander David earlier and he said he had some work for you to do while I plan our next move, so you should all talk to him, one-by-one to see what you can do in the meantime. And other than that, that's it! I wish you luck as you continue to lend support to the Cloudbreak Islands." The Chieftess said.

And then she walked away. David then said: "Alright then. As the Chieftess said, I do have some work for you to do in the meantime, so I'll talk to each of you one-on-one about your assignments. Until it's your turn, please wait to come up here." David said. Then he went on: "Michael, I'll talk to you first." "Yes sir." Michael replied.

The rest of us waited at the bottom of the staircase and volunteered to go up, one-by-one. I waited until I was last and then climbed up the staircase to talk to David.

"How may I be of assistance, sir?" I asked. "Tessa asked the Chieftess to tell me that you saved her-by which I mean Tessa herself-from injury in Cascade Glade earlier. That's very brave of you, Gregory. And since you have been delivering good results, I think you might be ready to be tested." "What kind of test is this sir?" I asked. "This is an opportunity for you to get a new Skylander. Let me explain: There is a village in a savannah that is under attack and I want you to go to that village and stop some lions that are attacking it. However, I want you to travel with the Skylander that I have in mind. If you successfully drive away the lions, then the Skylander is yours to keep. Is that clear?" David asked.

"Yes sir." I said back. "Good. In that case, I'll warp the Skylander to you…" David said. Soon a short, thin, dark purple dragon appeared with a pale magenta underbelly and wings of the same color, as well as a silver blade on her tail. She had spiked armlets that looked like they were made of silver around her legs and a spiked silver collar around her neck! She also had several silver horns on her head…

David then said: "This is the Skylander I was talking about. Cynder is her name. She has already been informed of her duties, so she is ready to begin. Isn't that right, Cynder?" "Yup! I'm all ready to scorch some lions!" Cynder replied. "Good to hear. In that case, approach the stone slab, Gregory and Cynder, and I will teleport you both to the savannah, but first, I have something to give you…"

We both did so and then an odd little trinket appeared on the stone slab! It was a gold C-shaped thing, only the curve that was going to the inside was less pronounced and it had triangle-shaped adornments on the back curve. "What's this?" I asked. "That's a teleport talisman. You can use it to return to Woodburrow anytime. Normally, your friends should be able to help you, but in cases when they're not around, this baby should do the trick." David replied back. "I see. Thank you sir!" I said. "No problem. Now it's time to get started. Go on ahead and help the village!" David said. Then a circle of light swallowed up Cynder and me.

When we could see again, we were in the middle of a grassy plain with very tall grass and some interesting-looking trees… It felt quite a bit hotter here than anywhere else I had been. I turned to Cynder and said: "The first thing I'd like to say is that it's a pleasure to meet you Cynder." And she said: "Oh yeah, thanks. Same to you. I've been looking forward for the chance to get out and do some work with a portal master." "Good. I'm glad to hear that. Anyway, do you know where we're supposed to be going?" I asked. "David said that the village is supposed to be north of here. Just follow me and watch the grass for ambushes while you go." Cynder replied.

We walked together for a while until we saw a village with some huts up ahead. Cynder and I looked at each other before we stepped in. We walked further until we saw the villagers that David had mentioned: They were antelope villagers, interestingly enough.

Cynder and I walked ahead and when one of the antelope saw us, she walked up to us and said: "Oh hello and welcome to our village! You don't look like you're from around here… who are you?" "My name is Gregory. I'm a portal master dispatched by the Beach Beta base." I said. "And I'm Cynder, a Skylander…It's nice to meet you…" Cynder said, yet strangely, she didn't display the same energy she had shown around David and me…she looked and acted quite shy, actually.

I didn't understand Cynder's change in attitude, but the antelope looked thrilled and said: "Oh thank goodness! We've been eagerly awaiting your arrival!" "So how may I help you?" I asked. "A clan of lions has been attacking our village for a while now. We'll need you to start by-" The antelope began, but then another younger, smaller antelope came running in and she said: "Miss Giselle! They're attacking again!"

"Oh dear! Well, change of plan: We need you to start by driving away the lions that have come into our village!" Giselle said. "Alright then!" I said before I turned to the younger antelope and said: "Where are they?" "They're over there!" The antelope said, pointing her head directly in front of us. "Alright then, we're going!" I said before I turned to Cynder and said: "Come on, Cynder!" "Yeah!" She said back.

And we ran straight ahead to find four lions going after the antelope villagers! Some lions were stationed in different places than others and soon I saw why: two lions that were chasing one antelope were running him nearby a hut-from where two other lions sprung out behind it and pounced on the antelope!

I immediately called out Hoot Loop and yelled: "HEY! LEAVE HIM ALONE!" And the lions all looked up out of shock which caused the antelope to get up and retreat. One lioness that had pounced swung her paw at him, but the antelope was already gone. "And who is it that would dare to interrupt our hunt?" One lion said, looking sharply at me. "That's no ordinary boy! Look-he has Skylanders with him! He must've been dispatched to eliminate us!" A lioness said. "Oh is that so? Well then you'd best get out of here, boy, before you become our next meal." A lion said.

I couldn't deny it-looking at real predators that looked like the lions on Earth, I felt scared. But at the same time, I wasn't given this job to be scared-everyone was expecting success from me and the antelope were depending on me!

I quickly regained my cool and responded to this threat by saying: "Get them!" And Hoot Loop started casting magic at the lions while Cynder ran on in. Two lionesses ran up in response. When the lionesses were getting closer to Cynder, she opened her mouth and bolts of lightning came shooting out! Cynder rotated her head to get them both and the bolts zapped the lionesses. Cynder yelled as she breathed the lightning, likely to try and intimidate them, although the lions didn't look frightened. An additional two lions came pouncing over the zapped lionesses' heads at Cynder, but Cynder just stopped breathing lightning and ran next to them and resumed shocking them.

The other two were after Hoot Loop. One lion ran up to him as he kept casting off magic and when the lion closed in he tried to swing his paw at Hoot Loop, but Hoot Loop teleported backward and hit the lion with a couple wisps of magic, saying: "So close!" The lion then tried to bite Hoot Loop, but once again, Hoot Loop teleported backwards out of his reach and blasted him with more magic while he went on, taunting: "Missed me by this much!" As he held up one of his other talons with about two inches of distance between them.

By now the lion was getting really mad and pounced at Hoot Loop outright, but Hoot Loop just teleported behind him, letting him fall on his face. Hoot Loop blasted him with magic, although one lioness did run up behind him and swipe him with her paw while he was busy.

Hoot Loop quickly teleported away and I checked on Cynder; a couple of lions were chasing her while Cynder ran off from them. Soon though, a lioness ran out from in between two huts and hit Cynder with her paw! "Ugh!" Cynder said as she was sent rolling to the side.

As Cynder got up, the two lions that had been chasing her were still after her and now they were closing in! Making matters worse, the lioness that had struck Cynder said: "One's down!" And another lioness immediately looked over and ran up to Cynder, preparing to pounce.

As the lioness closed in, she leapt at Cynder and said: "You're mine!" By now Cynder got up, yet strangely, she grinned and said: "I don't think so!" And then something unexpected happened: Cynder shrunk down and disappeared! "CYNDER?" I said. The lioness landed straight on her face and ended up crashing into the two lions that had been chasing Cynder, but then I saw…Cynder's shadow come flying forward on the ground. Had she turned invisible? Just then though, Cynder popped out from her shadow and immediately turned around and started zapping the lions with her lightning breath, turning her head back and forth to zap them all.

It looked like Cynder had the situation under control, so I checked on Hoot Loop: He now was blasting the lion and lioness with magic while floating away from them. This kept going until the lion and lioness were tired and had run him almost into a wall. By now, the other lions were also running at Cynder and were running her up to the lion and lioness that were cornering Hoot Loop!

Cynder nodded at Hoot Loop and quickly opened her mouth and zapped the lion and lioness before sinking into her shadow and reappearing as Hoot Loop blasted them with magic and as they fell, he then cast magic over them at the advancing lions. The lions kept running at them and pounced at Cynder and Hoot Loop, but Cynder merely sunk into her shadow again and passed by under the lions and popped up while Hoot Loop teleported next to Cynder. The lions landed and saw the wall in front of them-they were cornered. As Cynder and Hoot Loop attacked them, one of the lions yelled: "Ugh! This isn't going anywhere! Retreat!" And the lions got up and fled.

As soon as this was over, I turned around and said: "Is everyone alright? They're gone now!" And one-by-one the antelope came out. Giselle even showed up soon and said: "Oh thank you! Our villagers are all safe, thanks to you!" I smiled and said: "You're welcome. So what do we have to do next, Giselle?" "The lions themselves hide out to the west of our village. If you could go and drive them out, you'd have our eternal gratitude!" Giselle said. "Sure. That's what we came here to do after all…" Cynder said shyly. "Yup! We'll go immediately." I said. "Splendid! But please be careful-I don't know what they'll try to do to stop you." Giselle said. "Don't worry-we'll be fine." I said.

And then Cynder and I marched to the west of the village, as we were directed. As we traveled, the sun began to set and it got darker. Cynder and I were more vigilant as we kept going on…

Soon we arrived in a remote clearing where we saw some silhouettes in the distance. "What is that?" I asked. "Let's take a look." Cynder said. We moved in closer and saw what looked like…lions resting in the distance! There were a total of ten of them, although this also likely meant that six of them were the ones we had defeated, so they were likely too weak to fight…

"Are they…sleeping?" I asked. "Perfect! Let's go get them!" Cynder said quietly as she started to step forward and I sharply whispered: "Wait Cynder!" Cynder turned around and said: "What is it?" I shook the grass that Cynder and I were behind vigorously, but the lions didn't awaken… "What are you doing? Gregory, we have the chance to attack first!" Cynder said. "I don't like this…" I said as I scanned the area. Soon though, I saw that the grass in front of us looked a little…different, somehow before I turned to Cynder and said: "Wait here."

And I walked back and picked up a large rock, which I carried over to where I was standing and I said: "Hrf!" As I threw it at the grass. Surprisingly, the grass immediately fell into the ground!

Cynder and I walked up to it. "What the…?" Cynder said as I said: "A pitfall trap…" Then I heard a female voice say: "Bah! They saw right through it!" And I looked up to see the lions standing upright, completely awake. I knew it-this had all been a ruse! One of the lions walked forward and said: "So, you are the creatures who sabotaged our hunt." I never imagined that just two would be so dangerous-" "It's not just her and me. I have my Skylanders too! They were a big help to me and the antelope!" I said. "Ah, Skylanders. So you are a portal master then. Well now that you have walked into our territory, portal master, don't expect any mercy!" The lion said as he and another lion, along with two lionesses rose up. The other six, though, lied down on the ground. They must be the wounded ones…

The lions walked up to us as I called out Eruptor. Eruptor and Cynder ran around the pitfall. Cynder then ran in and started zapping them with her lightning breath. The lions tried attacking Cynder, but she dove into her shadow and zoomed past them as Eruptor lobbed blobs of lava at the lions and squarely hit them. The angry lions then moved in and the lionesses pounced on Eruptor and knocked him down! One of them swiped at Eruptor with her paw as he rose and in response, Eruptor discharged lava from his body, burning the lionesses!

Eruptor then ran off as Cynder was zapping the lions from behind. Yet the lions ran towards Eruptor, running from Cynder. Cynder pursued them as they kept chasing Eruptor, but then the lionesses ran forward at Cynder-I didn't like where this was going! "Cynder, look out!" I yelled, but it was too late-the lionesses managed to pounce on Cynder while she was distracted! One of them pinned Cynder down and the other even swiped at Cynder's face with her paw! "OW!" Cynder yelled.

I saw this got Eruptor's attention. The lions were chasing him, but Eruptor had a look on his face like he knew what he had to do. He hit them with blobs of lava running around them, after Cynder, who was getting beaten. As Eruptor closed in on the lionesses, he sent blobs of lava raining down on them and Cynder managed to zap them with her lightning breath! The lionesses flinched and Cynder managed to wriggle out of the lioness's hold and continue zapping them until they both fell down!

By now the lions were closing in on them and Cynder dove into her shadow and zoomed forward while I said: "Eruptor, they're coming up behind you!" And he turned around and Cynder and Eruptor bombarded them with blobs of lava and lightning breath until they looked like they were having trouble continuing…

The other lions on the ground rose with some difficulty and a lion said: "Oh great…Now we have to fight…in injured condition!" "NO…It's not worth it." One of the lions said who was being hit by Eruptor and Cynder. Eruptor and Cynder stopped as he then went on: "They're not worth what it will take to bring them down. We'll just have to hunt somewhere else." And all the lions started to flee as fast as their legs would carry them.

"That's what you get for picking on innocent antelope!" Cynder yelled at them before I said: "Great job, you two!" "Thanks Gregory. It's good for them too-those cats were about to be down to eight lives!" Eruptor said as he started to laugh. "Yes, thank you Gregory…" Cynder said. I nodded and called Eruptor back. Cynder then went on: "How did you know that they had a trap there?" "The ground looked strange to me, so I decided to test to see if they had done something. You'd be amazed what you can see if you just take a second to slow down." I said. "I'll have to remember that for next time." Cynder said, smiling. I laughed as I said: "Well anyway, let's get back to the antelope village. They'll be thrilled at the good news!"

Cynder nodded and we went back. When we arrived in the village, the antelope all looked happy to see us. Giselle approached us and said: "Oh, it's good to see you back! So did you…?" "We sure did! The lions ran off. They shouldn't be showing their faces around here anymore!" I said. "Oh that's wonderful! Thank you so much, for all you've done!" Giselle said to us. "It was our pleasure." I said. "No problem. So do you need anything else done?" Cynder asked.

I was surprised at Cynder's seemingly-endless supply of energy, but Giselle said: "No, no, we will be fine now. Thank you for asking, though." "Oh…alright." Cynder said, seeming a little disappointed. "Well anyway, we'll be glad to help out anytime you need us." "Thank you both. Please take care on your journeys!" Giselle said. The rest of the antelope all cheered as I turned to Cynder and said: "Looks like we accomplished our mission. Let's head back to Woodburrow." Cynder nodded and I used the teleport talisman to return to Woodburrow!

When we arrived, we headed back to the village altar where we found the projection of David once again. Cynder and I approached it and I said: "Sir, we have completed our mission in the savannah!" "Yes, I had heard. Well done! So now you can keep Cynder, if you want…" David said. "Of course!" I said. "Ha ha ha. That's nice. Well then Cynder, any objections?" "Nope!" Cynder said. "Alright then. Congratulations, Gregory! Cynder's all yours to work with!"

"Alright! Thank you sir!" I said. "You're welcome. I'll let you know if anything else comes up. Dismissed!" David said. I nodded and Cynder and I walked down the stairs together. "Thank you for joining me as well, Cynder." I said. "No problem. I think I have some things I could learn from you and you seem alright. So let's do a good job!" Cynder said. "Yeah!" I said. We laughed and I called Cynder back.

I was glad to have a new Skylander that I got along with. Cynder seemed like an interesting partner and I was excited to see her grow. While I was excited for my next mission, it was getting dark, so I guess that will have to wait until tomorrow…I headed back to my room in the wooden building, eager for more!


End file.
